Just Another American Dream
by BellaLou
Summary: Miracle Sometimes falling in love is the greatest adventure of all.
1. The Beginning Of A Dream

"CeCe come in here for a second."

Cecelia Brooks halted just outside the doorway as her father's voice rang out from inside his study, "What do you need Dad?"

Herb Brooks gestured towards the screen where hockey film was being projected behind him, "I want your opinion about something."

She dropped cross-legged to the floor and looked at him expectantly, "Well?"

"What do you think about Jim Craig?"

Cecelia took her time answering as she studied the film her dad was watching. Jim Craig, a goalie from Boston University, moved with ferocity and practiced calm that made him appear unflappable and impenetrable, a steel wall against the flying pucks. The intensity in his eyes, that was clear even on grainy film, could've stopped a grown man in his tracks. As she watched a puck was shot high and hard on Jim's left, his glove hand shooting up to catch it within a blink of the eye.

"I think he's amazing. Good stick handling, a fast glove; I don't know how to explain it, he just has it."

Her dad shook his head and appeared to be unconvinced, "I've been hearing talk that his games been off since his mom died."

"But look at him when his games on," CeCe pointed out, "Your boy Janaszak is good, but if you're going to stand a chance of winning against the Soviets you're going to need a different kind of play."

"You think Jimmy's got the right kind of play?" Herb asked his eyes unreadable.

She nodded her head decisively, "He's got it."

"I think so to."

A satisfied smile spread across his face. Nothing in the world made her dad happier than when she passed one of his little hockey quizzes and apparently this had been one of them. "If I get this coaching job, I'm going to need your help."

"I am pretty amazing, aren't I?" CeCe joked back with a huge smile in her dad's direction. Herb hadn't even interviewed for the Olympic coaching position and he was already watching tapes, talking to coaches, and scouting players for his team. By the time tryouts were held, he would've already picked his team and been planning practice schedules for the whole season, not to mention he'd probably already have a few of his "inspirational" speeches mapped out. That's just the way her dad worked. It was a little unorthodox, but no one could deny the results. Herb knew how to coach a team and he knew how to make them win.

"Who else would I trust to help me with this? You're the only person who thinks about hockey the way I do, I'm going to need someone in my corner when everyone else turns on me."

"And we all know they will," she giggled, "You couldn't make it through a single season without someone complaining about the way you coach."

"Some things I can't control," His eyes sparkled her way for a moment before they sobered, "If it was possible, I'd have you on this team."

Cecelia shrugged off his words, maintaining her bright smile, "You can't have everything you want."

After her flippant attitude failed to bring a smile back to her face, she looked up at him seriously and reached out to squeeze his hand, "It's ok dad, I understand."

"But—"

"No buts," she held up her hand to silence him, "I've always known that there was a limit to how far I could go in hockey and this is one of them. I'm not going to spend the next few months whining about how unfair it is because I've gone further and played longer than I ever thought possible."

"There shouldn't be a limit."

"But there is and I'm just lucky I grew up with a family that actually encouraged me to play. I never would've gotten as far as I have without you and mom cheering me on."

"I love cheering you on."

CeCe leaned sideways to rest her head on his leg. She knew that what he'd just said was code for "You're my baby girl and I love you." Herb wasn't always emotionally demonstrative toward his family, but she'd never doubted his deep love for her and her siblings. His love was evident in every word he spoke and every action he took.

"I love you too," she whispered as he slowly stroked her hair back from her eyes while they watched more film on the different players her father wanted on his team.

_**Two months later…**_

"Hey Herb, I just wanted to let you know how much I'm looking forward to being able to coach with you."

Cecelia paused in the doorway as she watched her dad's assistant coach Craig Patrick greet him enthusiastically. Within seconds of being in Herb's presence his whole demeanor changed from excited to just plain confused. Craig's shocked face when her dad handed him the finished roster after only a few hours of tryouts caused a giggle to well up in her throat, but she stifled it with her hand as they moved on to the controversial topic of picking a goalie.

"You have Jim Craig to back up Janaszak?"

Herb glanced at him over his clipboard, "Other way around."

"I'm sorry; didn't Janaszak just win you a national championship?"

"Jannie is a solid goaltender, but we're not playing for a national championship here Craig."

Craig Patrick continued staring at Herb in astonishment before he pointed out what everybody else had been thinking, "People I speak with say Craig's game has been off since his mom died."

Herb finally noticed Cecelia standing in the doorway and his eyes twinkled merrily her way before he made his reply, "Have they ever seen him when his games on?"

Her laughter over the private joke escaped before she could suppress it and Craig spun around to face the intruder, "Oh hi Cecelia."

She flashed a smile his way before peering over her dad's shoulder at his clipboard. A quick scan of the players later Cecelia looked up and nodded her head, "I think you nailed it."

The still confused Craig Patrick shook his head in bewilderment, but no other arguments were flung their way so Cecelia took it as a good omen for the months ahead. If Coach Patrick could accept her father's unconventional methods now, he'd be less likely to balk later on in the season when it really counted.

VV

Cecelia watched from her perch high in the bleachers as Craig Patrick read down the list of names making the initial cut. Most of the faces fell in disappointment as their name was passed by, but for twenty-six boys this was the first step toward their dream.

Even though she knew his name was on the list her face still relaxed into a smile and she couldn't stop the instinctive urge to bounce in her seat when Rob McClanahan was called. This experience wouldn't be the same without her best friend by her side.

Her father came down the stairs, looking every inch the imposing coach, with his practiced speech emphasizing his position as their coach and not their friend. His hard-nosed approach wasn't meant to be popular. In his opinion it would be a defining factor in making this group of boys a team in every sense of the word. CeCe was used to the lengths her father went to achieve his desired results; his attitude now didn't even surprise her. It was just one more way to manipulate his team into behaving the way he needed them to.

People were always shocked to see Herb in action. His eccentric coaching methods were always a bone of contention among those surrounding him, but Cecelia had long ago discovered the secret to his coaching madness. He knew his teams and he knew what was needed to make them perform the way he wanted them to. It was that simple. His methods just expounded on that basic principle. Everything was done for a reason and more often than not it achieved the desired result.

Groans rose up from the boys as Herb walked off leaving Coach Patrick to hand out the psychology tests he expected them to complete. They filed past Craig Patrick and then dispersed toward the locker room, congratulations being tossed back and forth between the players.

An hour later she was still seated on the bleachers looking over papers for her father when a pair of arms circled around her neck from the back. A dark head appeared over her right shoulder causing her to shriek in fright.

"Buzzy!"

"Got it in one," Buzz Schneider admitted, letting go of her to jump over the seat landing in the one next to her, "What are you doing?"

Cecelia held up the clipboard of papers, "Paperwork."

"Sounds like fun," he teased before leaning over to pluck the clipboard from her hands, "How about you come out with me and the guys instead."

"I can't," she reached for the clipboard, but he held it just beyond the range of her fingertips, "I've got loads of stuff to finish up tonight."

"I can help you with it later. I'll do some, you'll do some, and it'll be done in no time. Come on CeCe, it'll be fun. You can meet all the guys, say hi to the ones you already know, even your dad can't complain since you're supposed to get to know the team anyway."

"I guess that's true," Cecelia acquiesced brushing her bangs back from her face before packing up her things and letting Buzzy pull her up, "But you do know that my father will kill you if I get into any trouble tonight, don't you?"

"I know, but your father trusts me with you."

"Doesn't mean he won't drill you till your legs fall off if anything happens," she pointed out with a grin.

"Everything will be fine. I promise."

"Just don't leave me alone with any of those angry Boston boys. I might not have been the one who actually beat them these past few years, but I might be considered guilty by association in their book."

"They're not so bad," Buzz reassured her, but held up his pinky finger with a smile anyway, "Pinky swear?"

"Pinky swear," she replied linking her finger with his and bouncing them up and down in a habit leftover from her younger teenage years.

"Well then, let's go Princess."

Cecelia rolled her eyes, "I thought I told you not to call me that."

"But you are my princess," he teased as they exited the ice rink and headed down the street. The bar came into view before he could tease her further and suddenly an angry looking blonde man pushed through the door and brushed pass them with barely a nod in their direction.

"Jack O'Callahan," she observed watching him stalk down the sidewalk away from them.

Buzz's eyes followed him as well, "Apparently we missed the first fight."

Cecelia looked up at him; well to be truthful it was more over at him since he was only taller than her by about half a head, "I can't imagine it'll be the last."

"For once I actually think you're right."

A swift punch to the shoulder later Buzz wasn't so eager to provoke Cecelia's fiery temper again anytime soon. They entered through the door to find hockey players spread out across the bar in groups of two or three; eating, drinking, some of them dancing with the locals, all appearing unfazed after O.C.'s exit. Cries of welcome rose up at Buzz's appearance and a few louder hoots rang out at the sight of Cecelia.

Buzzy pulled her toward a table with two empty seats next to a few of the hockey players she hadn't met yet, but she instantly recognized them as being mostly from Boston University except for one of them who she couldn't place. It figures, she tells Buzz not to leave her alone with them and instead he drags her right into the lion's den. _Thanks a lot buddy_ she thought with a scowl that she quickly wiped off her face in order to smile pleasantly at the staring boys. Whether it was the appearance of a strange girl at their table or Buzz's willingness to socialize with them despite their Boston-ness that made them stare, Cecelia didn't know.

"Buzz," a dark haired boy greeted him and nodded politely toward Cecelia.

"This is Cecelia," Buzz introduced her to the table as a whole before clarifying her position with the team, "Herbie's daughter."

"Doesn't look a thing like him," another dark haired boy remarked before holding out his hand, "I'm Dave Silk, but most people just call me Silky."

"I'll take that as a compliment I guess."

"You should," Silky replied before pointing out each player at the table in turn, "This is Rizzo, that's Ralph Cox, obviously you know Buzz so I won't introduce him again, and if you happened to see a very angry blonde stomping out of here earlier that would be Jack O'Callahan who we fondly refer to as O.C."

"Rizzo is my roommate for the rest of training," Buzz put in as he signaled the waitress for a beer.

Cecelia called out an order for water before turning around to face him again, "I know."

"How did you know?"

"Coach's daughter," she answered as if it explained everything, "I put together the room assignments this morning which explains how I know, but the bigger question is how you know? Dad wasn't putting up the list until we got back to Minnesota."

"I went to speak with your dad before coming to find you, the paper was lying out on his desk."

"Sorry about putting him with you Rizzo," Cecelia apologized patting him on the hand, "I've had to sleep in the same hotel room as him before and it wasn't pretty. Feel free to chuck him out a window if he gets too annoying."

Ralph Cox's eyes bugged out of his head as he surveyed Cecelia and then Buzz in shock. Silky, on the other hand, had perked up after the last comment appearing considerably more interested than before.

Buzz held up his hand, "Not the way you're thinking. She was fifteen and I was on a couch while she slept in one bed and her dad slept in the other."

"Dare I ask why you're so cozy with Herbie and his family?" Rizzo cracked with a grin.

"It's all a little kinky if you ask me," Silky added sliding his chair closer to Cecelia who managed to keep a straight face despite his obvious interest and complete lack of tact in showing it.

"He played for my dad at the U all four years of college and that's where we met. I was an ugly hockey-crazed teenager whose father made poor Buzzy baby sit me whenever I came to watch a practice or attended a game because of his injury freshman year. He was forced into liking me—"

"And I haven't found a way to ditch her yet," Buzzy finished before slinging an arm around her shoulders, "Luckily for me she's gotten a little cuter over the years. It's not so embarrassing to be seen with her in public anymore."

Cecelia found the foot closest to her and ground into his big toe with the heel of her boot. His yelp of pain satisfied her desire for revenge and when a glare swung her way she answered it with a sweet angelic smile.

"So which poor guy did you stick with O.C.?" Silky asked returning to the original topic of conversation.

"Mac."

An incredulous Ralph Cox stared at her for a minute before replying, "Robbie McClanahan? You put O.C. and Robbie together in the same room?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"Depends on how you define problem," Rizzo said, "If you want one of them dead by morning than yeah, this is probably a problem."

"O.C. might have some anger issues, but I can't imagine anyone not liking Robbie. O.C. will just have to deal with his problems before taking them out on poor Mac."

"Princess," Buzz laughed, "Poor Mac is O.C.'s problem."

"Stop calling me that," she reprimanded him with a scowl, "Why would anyone not like Robbie?"

A chorus of "'76" rang out from each boy at the table.

"Are you telling me Jack is still mad about the '76 playoffs? Come on, It's almost been four years!"

Ralph nodded sympathetically, "Try telling that to O.C."

"I will," she shot back.

"It was a national championship," Silky said, "It's a pretty valid reason to be angry if you ask me. I'd probably try and beat Mac's ass too if I was him."

Cecelia's eyes narrowed at his words and Silky looked over her shoulder to notice Buzz wildly shaking his head back and forth mouthing something to him. It looked suspiciously like "stop" and "don't say that."

"Well I didn't ask you," Her glare could have frozen ice, "And for the record it would be Mac kicking your ass, not the other way around." With those parting words she pushed back from the table and headed for the bar without glancing back. The steam could be all but seen puffing out of her ears.

"I'll come get you later," Buzz called at her retreating back.

"What the hell was that?"

"You just crossed the line my friend."

Silky looked at him confused, "What line?"

"The friend line, Rob McClanahan is one of CeCe's best friends and heaven help you if you so much as bad mouth him to her face. You should just be glad punches weren't thrown."

"How was I to know?" he protested throwing his arms up in the air, "That girl should come with a handbook or something."

"Rob lives down the street from her and they've been friends forever. They've been playing on the same hockey team since she was old enough to skate."

Rizzo looked over surprised, "She plays hockey?"

Buzz didn't even appear fazed by the obvious shock written on all three boys' faces, "Yeah, she's good too. Cecelia never even played on a girl's team until she got a scholarship to play at the University of Minnesota Duluth. CeCe's been playing on guys' teams all her life."

At the continued looks of skeptical disbelief Buzz called Mark Pavelich over to the table, "You go to UMD right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then you've seen Cecelia play?"

Pav laughed, "Of course, I almost fell over the first time I saw her play. It was insane. None of the other freshman got to play for more than five minutes all year long and Cecelia started every single game."

"All right then, so she's really good for a girl," Silky conceded.

"No, she's really good for anybody," Pav corrected, "Ask any of the guys who played for the Gophers last season. Just mention the exhibition game in February, I bet they'll be willing to tell you all about it. I'm sure Janaszak would love to tell the story."

"What happened?" Ralph asked.

"Hey Verchota, come here for a minute," Buzz yelled out motioning for the other boy to join them, "What happened last season during that exhibition game you played for charity in February."

Phil Verchota's cheeks reddened, "They killed us."

"Who killed you?" Buzzy prodded.

"The women's team from Duluth," he muttered

Silky snorted, "The women's team beat you? Dude, that had to suck."

Verchota turned on him with a glower, "We beat you guys last year too, and those girls would have pulverized you."

"Like I said," Pavelich grinned his enjoyment over proving his point clear, "She's good for anybody, but to be fair the game was played with a no contact rule that managed to put the two teams on a more even physical playing field."

Verchota piped up again, "The worst part was that every time she out-skated us or out-played us Herb just smiled. He knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into when the university arranged for that game, but he never said a word."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Herb uses her to help train us somehow," Buzz replied after taking a sip of his beer, "He used to bring her to practice back when she was younger and have us skate against her in scrimmages. That girl is damn fast. You should've seen us; one skinny, little fifteen year old girl skating circles around twenty grown men. It was just plain embarrassing."

Pav glanced around, "The only one of us who can even come close to comparing with her speed-wise is Mark Johnson and I'm not one hundred percent sure he could keep up."

"So what you're saying is, not only does she have a nasty temper, but that she could also kill me in a game of hockey?" Silly asked with a small shake of his head, "Life is just unfair sometimes."

Buzz slapped him on the back, "Don't worry about it buddy. CeCe is a force of nature. Eventually you learn to just get out of her way and hold on for the ride."

VV

"I wonder what they're talking about."

Mac signaled for another beer, "Probably just hockey stuff."

In the hour since Cecelia had stalked away from the table a small crowd had assembled around the Boston boys and Buzzy. Her angry feelings had evaporated only seconds after her departure which was usually the way her temper worked. It flared to life for an instant and then flickered out just as fast. Even CeCe had to admit that she'd be royally pissed if someone got her thrown out of a playoff game stealing away any chance to win the national championship.

A tall, broad-shouldered guy slid onto the stool beside Mac and rattled off a long list of drink orders and then turned toward her and Robbie, "Hey Mac."

He twisted a little further and smiled past Mac at Cecelia, "I'm Jim Craig."

CeCe stuck her hand past Robbie, "Cecelia Brooks."

"Brooks?" Jim questioned before shaking her hand, "Herb's daughter?"

"That's me."

"So you're the prodigy the boys are talking about, huh?"

"Since when have I been a prodigy?"

Jim smiled her way, "Apparently since the first time you put on a pair of hockey skates."

"I'm not that good; you shouldn't listen to all the hype."

Mac snorted, "Don't pay any attention to her Jimmy. Poor Jannie doesn't even like to be on the ice when she comes out carrying a stick and wearing her pads."

"So her team really beat yours last season?"

"Our boys almost cried. None of us ever considered the fact that a bunch of girls could beat us at our own game until it actually happened," he confirmed, "Can you believe that my own best friend had no qualms about permanently damaging my ego?"

"I really am sorry about that Mac," Cecelia replied looking adorably unapologetic, "You know that I had to set an example for my team. Only a few of those girls have ever played against a team of boys before in their life. I had to show them that it was possible to not only play against people twice your size, but to win against them as well. It required a few dirty tactics."

Mac's lip remained in a pouted position, "Well you could've picked someone else to demonstrate your brute strength on."

"If it makes you feel better, I'll pick someone else next time."

"It does."

Jimmy laughed at their banter, "You two know each other long?"

"Since we were born," Cecelia replied proudly, "He lives two houses down from mine. We grew up playing hockey together on the pond behind our houses."

"We played in peewees together," Rob smiled.

"And on traveling teams every year."

"And in high school."

CeCe grinned at Jimmy, "If I'd been allowed, I would've played with him at college too. Unfortunately I seem to be missing a few of the anatomical structures that qualify you to play on a men's hockey team. I'd have to lose the boobs and grow a penis."

Jim choked on his beer, "You're certainly blunt."

"It's all part of my charm," the breezy reply was sent his direction with a cheeky grin to accompany it.

Robbie nodded, "You're right about that, but I better get you back over to Buzz before he decides I've compromised your virtue."

"As if I'd let you." She shook her head at the mere thought before saying goodbye to Jimmy, "It was nice meeting you. I guess I'll see you at practice."

Jim held up his glass in a mock salute, "Looking forward to it."

Cecelia allowed Mac to entwine his fingers with hers before he tugged her off the stool and propelled her across the bar in Buzz's direction. She smiled down at the sight of their fingers tangled together and savored the feel of their palms pressed together for a moment before stifling the distinctly un-platonic feelings she was occasionally guilty of having for her best friend. The crowd around them had long since dispersed leaving only the original four at the table. She plopped into Buzzy's lap, "Have you been telling stories about me again?"

"Me?" he asked innocently, "Never."

"Try not to talk me up so much, the guys will be disappointed when they finally get to see me play."

Dave Silk cautiously shifted in his chair to face her uncertain of his reception, "I'm sorry about what I said earlier, I shouldn't have said anything."

Cecelia grinned his way, "It's not a big deal; I shouldn't have gotten upset about it. Mac makes me want to punch him in the face or at least yell very loudly almost daily, so really, O.C. and I should start a club to commiserate with each other. We could have meetings and discuss how annoying Robbie is."

"Hey!"

"Well you do and you are."

"Fair enough," Mac replied reclining back in his chair, "At least you don't usually act on those violent urges."

"Would I ever hurt you?"

"Do you want me to answer that truthfully or sugar-coat a lie so as not to scare the other guys?"

Rizzo leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, "You better sugar coat a lie. I don't want to spend the next few months waiting for Cecelia to attack me."

"It takes a special man to piss me off that much." She smiled sweetly, "Robbie just seems to have that particular effect on me."

"I try sugar plum, I try."

"I know you do darling."

The three boys from Boston looked mystified and all of them glanced at Buzz for explanation. He held up his hands, "Don't ask me. Those two are some of the most screwed up people I've ever met. They've been like this since I met them six years ago; I gave up trying to understand it about five years and three hundred and sixty-four days ago."

Cecelia's mouth opened to protest, but no sound came out. Her head dropped to rest on Buzz's shoulder and she draped her arms around his neck, "I'm tired."

"I better get you home then. Say goodbye to the boys."

"Bye boys," she repeated automatically without lifting her head off his shoulder.

"Bye Cecelia," they all chorused.

"It was nice meeting you," Rizzo added.

Ralph Cox nodded, "See you later."

"Want to go out with me?" Dave Silk glanced around the table, "What? I was just asking!"

CeCe didn't open her eyes, but a small smile flit across her mouth, "Maybe sometime Silky."

Buzz stood up and heaved Cecelia to her feet beside him, "Let's hit the road Princess."

She flung an arm in his general direction expending some of her precious energy, "If you don't stop calling me that I'm going to lobotomize you with the sharp end of a hockey stick."

"Promises, promises," he retaliated with a laugh, keeping an arm around her waist, and pushing her toward the doorway, "See you tomorrow boys."


	2. Who Knew Bowling Was So Hard?

Cecelia's eyes narrowed at the expression on her father's face when she descended the stairs a week later before their first team practice. "What are you looking at?" she growled, "It's five a.m. no one looks good at five in the morning."

"I didn't say a word," he denied hiding his amusement, "You look beautiful."

"Yeah," she muttered, "If you define beautiful as still having the imprint of a pillow on your face and unbrushed hair that makes you look like a rabid chipmunk than yeah, I'm beautiful."

"Get in the car chipmunk."

"Nothing but love, huh Dad?"

Her father chuckled, "Something like that CeCe, but seriously we have to get going. We're already pushing it time wise so get your butt in gear."

She shuffled toward the front door, "I'm going, I'm going."

Noting the vacant look still occupying her face, Herb opened the car door and even went so far as to buckle her seat belt before heading for the driver's side. Cecelia's head lolled to the side and her body felt boneless against the soft leather of the seat. The blur of greenish leaves from the trees racing past allowed her mind to drift comfortably from thought to thought in the dazed stupor of the exhausted.

No matter how many years she'd been forced to wake up early for hockey practice her body never accepted the change. Her mind didn't even begin to function normally until around 9 a.m. and luckily for Cecelia, hockey had never been a thing that took mental thought. It was just something that came naturally to her, like breathing.

"CeCe?"

She slowly opened one eye and peered at her father through the open car door "Yeah dad?"

"We're here."

"Sorry, I guess I must've fallen asleep again." Cecelia stretched her arms and legs before gathering up her various bags. She slung them over her shoulder before following her dad into the building, "Do I get to skate today?"

"Not with the team, I just want you to watch today. I need help putting lines together and you're my expert. Next week is probably the earliest I'm going to put you on the ice with the guys."

"What's the game plan for today?"

"I'm running a light practice. I want the guys to get used to playing with each other so they're going to be scrimmaging most of the morning."

"Sounds like fun." From anyone else, her dad might have taken that as a sarcastic remark, but he was intuitive enough to catch the slight jealous edge to her voice. Cecelia probably did think scrimmaging all morning was fun.

Maybe it had been wrong to push her into hockey at such an early age Herb reflected not for the first time. He'd been so excited when, not only had his first child shown an interest in his sport of choice, but that her natural aptitude for it seemed extremely high. It had seemed a natural progression to condition her endurance and build up her speed even while she was very young. While other girls had been playing with dolls Herb had been running Cecelia through conditioning drills and timing her sprints. Instead of going to movies with a gaggle of giggling girls on Friday nights, she'd skate laps on the pond behind the house working on her stick handling. His wife Patti hadn't always approved of the fanatical training, but Cecelia blossomed under his tutelage so she kept her disapproval silent and accepted her daughter's unusual interest.

In one sense, their hard work had paid off; her talent outshone just about every other person, man or woman, he'd ever seen on the ice. Her willingness to give up a normal life had enabled her to be the best, but now that she was older Herb questioned whether their single-minded focus was healthy. Cecelia had missed all the normal teenage milestones; first dates, first kisses, first boyfriends. Instead she'd had first teams, first goals, first penalty calls. He couldn't stand the idea of—

"Whoa daddy, are you finding a solution for world peace or what?"

His eyes blinked at her uncomprehending, "Excuse me?"

"You looked so serious. I was just wondering what you were thinking about."

"Practice, the Olympics, a little bit of everything it seems," Herb replied with a small chuckle unwilling to disclose his previous thoughts, "I just can't stop running through everything in my head."

"It's pretty exciting papa," She opened her big eyes beguilingly, "I'm just so proud of my big strong coach of a dad."

"Are you sassing me?"

Her _who-me?_ look caused him to laugh again before wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her forehead lightly, "Thanks for helping me out with this. I know how much you're giving up."

"Nothing I can't do later."

"You're sacrificing a year of your life just to ensure that mine runs smoothly. You could be out finding your dream job, backpacking across Europe, or I don't know, doing something else fun."

"This is the closest to the Olympics I'll probably ever get," Cecelia replied, "It's an amazing opportunity. I can find my dream job next year and I'll get to see Europe when we travel anyway." She flashed a smile his way and teased, "Plus, you know I'd never miss the chance to hang out with twenty-six good looking hockey players."

"Don't date my players CeCe," He warned not amused by her flirtatious intentions, "I mean that. Those boys need to be focused. What they don't need is you parading around distracting them."

"When have you ever seen me parade anywhere? If I recall correctly, the last time I attempted to parade around in an effort to impress someone was eleven years ago. I was ten and Tommy Buxton down the street invited me to his birthday party." She rolled her eyes when her father's continued frown didn't fade, but placated him anyway, "I was just teasing."

"Well I'm not," Herb said, "Some rules I let you out of because you're my daughter and I love you, but leave those poor boys alone. You can date any one of them, after the Olympics are over."

She snapped to attention and held up two fingers in a smart salute, "Scouts honor sir."

Herb looked toward the ceiling, "How did I get stuck with such a smart ass for a daughter?"

"Just lucky I guess daddy."

"Lucky indeed," he murmured watching CeCe dance her way down the rest of the darkened hallway, "Cecelia?"

She spun around without ceasing her exuberant dancing, "What?"

"Stop distracting Mac in practice. Don't think I didn't see you making faces at him when he was trying out in Colorado."

It was Cecelia's turn to look skyward, "How did I get stuck with such an observant father? I should've been born to a hippie; they wouldn't have tried to squash my creative juices."

"Sticking out your tongue isn't creative sweetie."

"Have you seen the number of ways I can stick out my tongue? It's really quite impressive. I've been honing my skills for years."

"Later you can show me each and every way, but right now I need to go get ready before the boys show up."

"All right, don't worry about me. You go do whatever it is you do before morphing into Crazy Coach. I'll just go make myself comfortable in the bleachers."

"I don't turn into Crazy Coach."

"Actually you do. Who can see you when you're all riled up like that; you or me?" CeCe giggled at his disconcertment, "That's what I thought."

Her dad shook his head hiding the same smile that rarely left his face when in the presence of his eldest fun-loving daughter, "Just try and behave for once in your life."

VV

"Johnson! That coast to coast stuff might work here, but it won't against the teams we'll be playing!"

Cecelia watched her dad berate the cute blonde player from Wisconsin. The player nodded his understanding and headed to the bench for a break. Mark Johnson was easily the best player on the team and she found her eyes being drawn to him frequently throughout the practice just because she liked watching him skate. He moved with harnessed power that she found fascinating. As cheesy as it might sound, it was like watching a powerful jungle cat; graceful, powerful, and unstoppable. Cecelia had to giggle at her thoughts, who could think things like he moves like a powerful jungle cat without laughing? She certainly couldn't.

From her vantage point above the bench she watched Jack O'Callahan persuade one of his teammates to sit out his turn and O.C. hopped onto the ice skating forward with a strange gleam in his eyes. His eyes shifted toward the right and CeCe followed his stare to where Mac was waiting on the ice.

The whistle marking the beginning of play blew and only seconds later Mac deflected the puck away from him and toward another teammate, but Jack never even slowed in his pursuit. Uh-oh she thought only seconds before O.C. had slammed into Mac from the side knocking him clear off his feet and down onto the ice.

"Nice hit O.C."

Cecelia shot a glare Dave Silk's way but didn't waste her breath screaming at him for being stupid. Her attention swung back to O.C. and Robbie's continuing fight on the ice. Her father stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed over his chest not making a move to stop their brawl. Coach Patrick looked like he wanted to step in, but his actions were stilled by her father's held up hand. The players on the ice finally pulled them apart leaving a satisfied Jack and a bloodied Mac. The urge to run down to the ice like a madwoman had taken hold in the pit of her stomach, but Cecelia stifled the urge holding herself physically in her chair positive that her father wouldn't hesitate to send her ass back home if she interrupted practice and what was sure to be an important lesson.

"Well how about it boys, does this look like hockey to you?" Herb asked finally making his way to the ice ready to make his point, "Looks like two monkeys humping a football to me. Don't you think Craig?"

Craig Patrick looked confused and nodded his head uncertainly, "Yeah."

Cecelia could almost see her father winding up for his big speech. She watched him objectively, he was almost inspiring if she ignored the fact that he walked around in his underwear at home. It was strange seeing this side of her dad. He never treated her like this while helping her train, but CeCe was sure that shared blood had a lot to do with that. His fist was shaking in the air and the force of his words washed over the whole team and made more than a few heads hang in shame over their petty feuds. _Good job dad_ she thought with a smile _show them who's boss_.

"How about we start with some introductions," Herb spun to point at Robbie, "Where you're from, who you are, go ahead"

Robbie looked bewildered, "Rob McClanahan, St. Paul Minnesota."

"Who do you play for?"

"For you here at the U."

"Jack?" Herb asked gesturing toward O.C.

"Jack O'Callahan. Charlestown, Mass. Boston University."

"Over here."

"Uh, Ralph Cox."

Ralph grinned for a second before finishing his introduction, "I'm from where ever isn't going to get me hit."

A couple of the guys chuckled before Herb signaled for Coach Patrick to blow the whistle again, "Everybody on the line."

Cecelia felt her muscles relax as the tension on the ice diffused. It had been a good idea to let O.C. work out his aggression on Mac and it had offered a perfect opportunity for the we start becoming a team now speech her dad had been practicing, but watching her best friend get pummeled hadn't been easy on her already frayed nerves. With a deep sigh she sank down in her seat to watch the rest of practice in peace thankful that for now the violence seemed to have passed.

VV

Cecelia jumped up as the locker room door swung open, "Mac? How's Mac?"

"He's still alive if that's what you're wondering," the cocky blonde coming out the door replied, "A little concerned about your boyfriend are you?"

"He's not my boyfriend. I just don't appreciate watching my friends get beat up."

"I'll try and restrain myself next time," O.C. said with a laugh. His light blue eyes sparkled at her beneath the arrogant veneer. There was something charming about his devil-may-care attitude that she found strangely endearing despite the fact that only minutes before she'd been inclined to believe that he was akin to the spawn of Satan.

Cecelia decided to hold off on killing him for the moment and flashed one of her trademark hundred watt smiles his way instead, "Just don't do it in front of me next time."

"I can do that. So you're the coach's daughter?"

"Last time I checked."

"What's it like living with Herb?"

"Like living with your coach all the time," she said after a minute of contemplation, "But in a good way I guess. He's not hard on me like he is on you. I'm just his baby girl."

"You don't look like I thought you would."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked sinking back down to the floor and patting the spot next to her. Their conversation wasn't going at all like she'd imagined it might. The anger she'd felt earlier had all but dissipated leaving only a vague feeling of curiosity about the boy next to her.

Jack sat next to her stretching his long legs out in front of him, "Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I was expecting a supermodel or a superhero or something along those lines. You know, able to scale tall buildings in a single bound without a strand of hair falling out of place, perfect features, perfect body, and all that."

She tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear, "You don't think I'm perfect? I'm hurt."

"The boys were raving about you after that night at the bar. I was under the impression that sunglasses might be needed to shield my eyes from being blinded by your angelic brilliance."

"Sorry to disappoint, there's just not a whole lot of angelic brilliance radiating off me at the moment. I'll work on it for next time" She teased before a slight frown marred her features, "I can't believe that the guys would have anything nice to say about me, especially after the way I got after Dave."

"Now, he didn't mention anything about that. He was too busy telling me about how nice and sweet you are."

"Nice and sweet aren't adjectives I usually use to describe myself."

"Why'd you get mad at poor Silky?"

Cecelia arched an eyebrow at him, "He said something about Mac that I didn't agree with. If you mess with Mac, you mess with me."

"Ouch, so if you got mad at him just for saying something you must be really pissed at me for punching him."

"I was intending to be, but sometime between then and now I've decided to let any fights be between the two of you and not drag myself into the middle of it."

He tilted his head back and laughed, "I kind of see why all the guys liked you now."

"Well since we're having truth time here, I might as well tell you that I was very ready to hate you. I thought you were going to be an egotistical, selfish bastard with a heart of stone."

"And I'm not?"

"Oh you are, but somehow I find myself liking you anyway."

"I'll take that," Jack replied with a wink, "So how did Mac get such a great girl to hang out with him?"

"He gets me because he knew me first and surprisingly enough there hasn't been a lot of competition for me since."

"Beside your bad taste in friends, there hasn't been anything else about you I don't like."

"You're one of the few then," she said lightly to let him know she was teasing. That was just what she needed, Jack telling someone that she had self-esteem issues. Buzz and Mac would probably start a letter writing campaign from everyone and their grandmother about how special she was in an effort to boost it. As much as she loved them, their incessant smothering sometimes got to be a bit much.

Before O.C. could respond the door swung open and the rest of the team poured out into the hallway in a cloud of soapy smelling steam. The deep voices chattered back and forth not noticing the two seated figures.

"Hey! Watch it man!" O.C. yelled, "Those are my legs you're stepping on!"

Mike Ramsey glanced down to where his large foot was resting on top of Jack's lower leg, "Sorry about that."

"Just keep your big feet off my leg and we'll be fine."

"Don't harass Rammer," Cecelia scolded, "He's going to be my baby."

Jack looked over incredulously, "Your baby?"

"Well ok maybe not my baby per say, but he is the youngest one here. That's got to qualify you for something special and there's nothing I love more than gloating about my superior age."

"I don't mind," Mike said with a wink, "I'll be your baby anytime."

"Watch it," Buzzy warned good-naturedly, "The girl is viscous. She'll bite you as soon as look at you."

"I wouldn't mind that either."

Mac walked out the door catching the tail end of the conversation, "Are you talking about Cecelia?"

"Who else?"

She frowned at her two good friends, "I'm thinking really nasty thoughts about you two right now, nasty enough that I can't even say them out loud."

"You know you love me," Robbie teased.

"I'm going to give you a black eye to match the one Jack gave you pretty soon, that's what I know."

O.C. coughed to hide his chuckle before furtively slapping her high-five and ignoring the dirty look Mac sent his way, "Are you coming out with us tonight?"

"Depends, what are you planning to do?"

"A bunch of us are going bowling. Are you up for it?"

"I could probably fit it in."

"Pick you up at six?" Jack asked getting to his feet and pulling Cecelia up behind him.

"You're going to pick me up at my house?"

"Where else would we pick you up, the zoo?"

"You do know that my dad lives there too don't you?"

"Herb doesn't scare me."

"He should," CeCe replied, "But if you're willing to take your chances with him then so be it."

"Six o'clock then?"

"I'll be ready."

O.C. flashed his pearly whites her way and picked up his gear off the floor, "I'll see you later gorgeous."

"You're going to rot in hell for your lies," she said returning his grin, "You already told me earlier that you didn't think I was gorgeous. You're just a big fat liar."

"Perhaps your gorgeousness is an acquired taste, it sort of sneaks up on you."

"Or perhaps you're just a suck-up."

His grin widened, "It could go either way."

"Get out of here Charm Boy. I'll see you tonight."

The rest of the boys slowly dispersed leaving only Mac and Cecelia in the cramped hallway. She pushed back a lock of his hair to examine his face, "You don't look too banged up."

Mac shrugged, "Nothing too serious, a cut on the lip and my eye is a little sore, but so far it doesn't look too bad."

"Are you going bowling tonight too?"

"If I wasn't before, I am now," he replied with another frown in the direction O.C. had went, "Since when are you two best friends?"

"It's a recent development. Why? Are you jealous?"

"Maybe a little," he held up his thumb and forefinger close together, "I'm used to having you all to myself."

She dropped her bags and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Two minutes with Jack doesn't even compare to the twenty something years I've spent being friends with you. You're stuck with me bud."

"Well aren't we just a hallmark commercial in the making?" Robbie responded with a laugh trying to ease them back into the easy camaraderie that had been their trademark for years, "I was just kidding you about being jealous. I think it's a good idea for you to make friends with O.C. Maybe he won't punch me again if you're there to keep him in line."

"I knew you were keeping me around for a reason."

"You've always been a smart cookie. Is your mama cooking tonight?"

"Are you coming over?"

"Think she'll be up for an early dinner?"

Cecelia grinned, "For you, my mother might leave my father. I'll bet we can talk her into feeding us before we head off for our bowling adventure."

"Have I mentioned how much I love your family?"

"A few times, but it never hurts to say it again."

"I love your family. Do you think they're looking to adopt?"

"Not you they aren't."

"That was harsh CeCe, but a big slice of your mother's homemade bread might go a long way to assuaging the pain."

"Come on big guy, let's go get you fed."

"I love how you understand me."

"Stop the flattery, you already got what you want."

"Right, I'm stopping now."

"Robbie?"

"Yeah?"

"I kind of like you too."

Mac bumped her lightly with his shoulder and smiled, "Good to know."

VV

"Cecelia Ava Brooks!"

"What?"

"Why is Jack O'Callahan ringing my doorbell?"

Cecelia peeked out from the kitchen, "We're going bowling."

"Did I or did I not tell you not to date my players?"

"We're not going on a date. Look behind him, I'm sure there are at least five other hockey players standing on our front yard with him."

Patti Brooks pulled back the curtain in the living room, "I see six."

"There you go, not a date. Mac will be there and I'm sure Buzz will be too. You know they won't let me out of their sights long enough to sneak in a clandestine date with some random hockey player I met a few hours ago."

"I still don't like it."

"Have fun sweetie," her mother said pressing a kiss on her cheek and shooting a look at Herb, "Don't get in too much trouble."

"Robbie! They're here!"

He poked his head out a doorway down the hall, "But your brother and I are in the middle of a game."

"Finish it later," Cecelia replied in exasperation before turning to find her dad still staring at the shut door, "Dad, open the door."

"Do I have to?"

"Herb," Patti frowned in warning.

"Fine, I'm opening it." He wiped any remnant of a happy expression off his face and opened the door with his firm coach's scowl safely in place, "Jack."

"Hi Coach."

"I hear you're taking Cecelia bowling."

O.C.'s smile faltered but he resolutely held on to it, "It's not so much I'm taking her as it is she's just coming along. We're all just friends sir, nothing more."

Cecelia smiled inwardly, apparently Jack was a little more afraid of Herb than he'd let on earlier, "I'll be back later dad. Bye mom."

Grabbing a reluctant Robbie and herding a sputtering Jack out the door proved to be a task in itself taking her at least five minutes just to get outside and close the door.

Jim Craig, Buzz Schneider, Mark Johnson, Mike Ramsey, Phil Verchota, and Mark Pavelich awaited their arrival on the lawn all of them visibly holding in their laughter at the sight before them.

Pav burst into laughter as soon as the door slammed shut and said in a high squeaky voice, "It's not so much I'm taking her as it is she's just coming along. We're all just friends sir, nothing more."

"Shut up," O.C. threatened with a dark glower, "I didn't want Herb going after me in practice just because he thought I was hot for his daughter or something."

Cecelia fought her own laughter struggling to keep a straight face. After a minute her mirth was contained enough for her to ask, "Is it just us going bowling?"

"Nah, some of the other guys are meeting us there later," Verchota answered.

"Let's do it," she jumped up and down in excitement, "I love bowling."

"She's really bad though," Mac put in avoiding her swinging hand with a quick bob and weave after saying it, "Seriously, you don't want to be within a fifteen foot radius when she's got a bowling ball in her hands. You might lose a limb or your life if she really puts some power behind her throw."

"I'm really not that bad."

"I feel compelled to disagree."

"You're just jealous of my innumerable skills."

"Yeah, that's it."

"I know you too well."

VV

"Ok, I'm that bad," Cecelia agreed five hours later when the boys were walking her home. Most of the guys had dispersed back to their rooms an hour or so ago leaving only O.C., Mac, Buzz, Silky, and Mark Johnson to walk her home.

After only an hour of bowling all the boys had been willing to testify to Cecelia's horrifying lack of talent when it came to the sport of bowling. She'd accidentally dropped a ball on Rammer's foot, elbowed Silky in the stomach while picking up her ball, and had thrown her ball hard enough for it bounce over the median between the lanes at least four times. That wasn't even taking into the account the huge dent she'd left in the back wall of the bowling alley with one of her harder misplaced throws.

"Cecelia, I hate to say it, but maybe you should never pick up a bowling ball again," Jack advised

"Screw up once and you're branded for life," she lamented sadly.

Dave Silk rubbed his stomach in remembered pain before mouthing "Once?" in O.C.'s direction. The other guys stifled their amused laughter, leaving only Cecelia with a disgruntled expression on her face.

"I'll see you later babe," Mac stepped in taking pity on her, "Get some sleep." He picked her up in his arms for a hug and kissed her lightly on the forehead before setting her down on the front step of her house.

A chorus of goodbyes rose up from the rest of them, and Buzz stepped forward to wrap his arms around her in a comfortable embrace, "Sweet dreams CeCe."

Cecelia hopped off the steps and bounded toward the rest of the boys giving them all a quick hug and a light kiss on the cheek much to their surprise, "You guys are great." She turned to head back inside but spun around one last time a smile lighting up her face, "Jack, be nice to Robbie. I want him all in one piece tomorrow."

"I'm not making any promises."

Mac's reply was cut off by a swift hand motion from Cecelia. "Drop it," she warned quietly before turning the doorknob and entering the brightly lit house.

All five boys watched her disappear into the house before turning to head back down the sidewalk. After only half a block Jack asked the question that had been hanging in the air since the first night at the bar, "So which one of you is actually with Cecelia?"

Buzz grinned, "Neither of us unless Mac has been hiding something from me. We're all just friends."

"Come on, you're telling me that neither of you have a thing for her."

"What's so surprising about it?" Mac asked, "She's great and all, but—I don't know—it's just never gone there."

"How could it not go there? She's cute, she's fun, and she loves hockey. Three very important things in my book."

"She is all those things, but I don't know. Cecelia is just Cecelia, you know? We have history together."

Silky wiggled his eyebrows, "Well if you're not interested mind if I take a shot?"

Mac's eyes turned dark and his gaze narrowed, "Leave her alone man. She doesn't need a bunch of hockey players chasing her around especially if you're just interested in having a few quick days of fun. I don't want her getting hurt."

Buzz stepped between the two boys to diffuse the sudden tension, "Mac, you know that she won't let it go there. It's not going to happen no matter how hard Silky tries and you know it." Dave looked put out and he instantly tried to explain his unintended insult, "It's nothing against you personally, she's just been strictly ordered not to mess around with her dad's players. It's been a hard and fast rule since Herb started bringing her around when she was in high school."

"I think she's scared of boys," Mac put in with an amused grin, "Her dad's rule is just a good excuse to not get involved."

"That girl confuses me more and more each day," Silky bemoaned dramatically, "First I think she likes me and now I find out she'll never give me the time of day. I just can't win with her. I'm never going to understand her."

"You've only known her a week," Mark pointed out.

"That's long enough to know she confuses me."

Buzzy smiled slightly, "But you're never bored either."

"She's definitely good for keeping you entertained," Robbie agreed his smile growing wider in remembrance of their years together, "Just wait guys, spend a few days with her and you won't be able to imagine your life without her in it anymore."

O.C. threw back his head and chuckled, "Are you sure that you aren't hiding some humongous crush for this girl underneath all that friends' crap you keep spouting off?"

Mac just shook his head and kept walking, "She's different, man."

"Different, how?"

"You'll see," he warned almost good-naturedly before glancing over at O.C., "It's hard to explain, but she's just one of those people." At the confused looks Robbie tried to explain what he meant, "She's special. When Cecelia smiles, it's almost like the world smiles too everything just sort of lights up around her. That's the best way I can describe it."

"I'll take your word for it I guess. Sorry about hitting you today," he finished in a rush refusing to meet Mac's eyes during the apology. After rethinking the wording of his apology he amended his words, "Actually no, I'm not sorry for hitting you, but I am sorry that I did it during practice."

"Don't do it again and we'll be fine."

"Don't piss me off again and I won't.

Robbie's eyes went wide and he shook his head again a strange look on his face, "It's almost scary how much you just reminded me of Cecelia when you said that."


	3. The Wrath Of A Girl On Her Period

"Weave, weave, weave!" Coach Brooks shouted as his players ran a play down the ice. Schneider passing the puck to John "Bah" Harrington who shot it past the blue line to Steve Christoff, but Christoff's attempt to weave allowed Mark Johnson to swoop in and steal the puck with little effort. Herb smacked his head in exasperation, "Don't just weave for the sake of weaving Christoff! Get your head in the game; I'm beginning to think that a troop of Girl Scouts could play better than you are right now!"

A few minutes later, Herbie waved for Cecelia to come onto the ice. At his signal Cecelia leaned down and started lacing up her skates while he called his team into a huddle on the ice, "I hope you boys don't mind, but I've got a little surprise for you today. Cecelia's going to be helping you with your conditioning for the next few months starting today."

Herb didn't smile, but she could read the amusement in his eyes when most of the boys exchanged puzzled looks, "Blue line back, red line back, far blue line back, far red line back. Get used to this drill; you'll be doing it a lot."

"Why?" He asked himself out loud before anyone could utter a word, "Because legs feed the wolf. I can't promise you that you'll be the best team at Lake Placid next February but we will be the best conditioned that I can promise you."

At their nods he continued on with a half smile, "Don't worry, you're only doing this until Cecelia gets tired, but until then I expect all of you to keep up with her. And as an added bonus if she slows down, you can slow down, but not a moment before then. Do you understand?"

Relieved smiles crossed over all of the players' faces except for Robbie who resolutely put his helmet back on and prepared for the worst conditioning experience of his life. The other guys skated leisurely to the line talking and laughing ready to skate for a few minutes until the little girl got tired and quit. None of them even considered the idea that a girl could be better conditioned than they were. They were in for a rude awakening Robbie thought, almost willing to endure the hell in order to enjoy the looks on their face after this was all over and they were crawling off the ice in pain.

Herb blew his whistle again after Cecelia moved closer to say something as she skated in a small circle around him as a warm-up, "Cecelia wants me to remind you that its laundry day tomorrow. If you have anything you need washed have it ready by one o'clock when she comes around to pick it up."

She stopped to say something else and he looked up again his face still a mask of complete seriousness that never wavered despite the words he uttered next, "She says that if it turns into a repeat of last week she's going to dye all your clothes hot pink."

"I'm not going to dig through your rooms for dirty laundry like I did last time," Cecelia announced with a disgusted look, "That was one of the most revolting experiences of my life and I don't care to repeat it."

"On the line," Herb commanded before skating closer to his daughter, "Just let me know when you're ready to stop."

"Will do dad," she took her place in the middle of the line and waited for the whistle from Coach Patrick. If the look on Jack's face was any indication all the guys thought they were getting off easy with Herb's declaration that they only had to run his conditioning drill until she wanted to stop. Oh well, she thought evilly, it would be damn fun proving them wrong.

The whistle blew repeatedly without mercy as the boys struggled to keep up with Cecelia on the ice. Mark Johnson had managed to stay neck and neck with her for the first fifteen runs, but was now beginning to lag behind struggling to remain in close proximity. All of the other boys had never managed to keep pace with her to begin with and were being rudely reminded almost constantly by her father. Every pass he had something new to say about their pitiful effort.

"What the hell are you doing Strobel? Going for an afternoon skate in the park with your grandma? Get your ass in gear and keep up with her!"

"Hey Rammer, how does it feel to be beaten by a girl?"

"Don't laugh O.C., it doesn't look like you're doing any better out there."

"Shouldn't you be more prepared?" Herb asked right before Mac tripped over his own skates and almost crashed down onto the ice, "Guess not."

"Johnson, she's killing you out there. I'm embarrassed for you!"

Finally after twenty five runs or so Cecelia slid to a stop in front of her dad and the team all collapsed onto the ice panting, trying to catch their breath, unwilling or unable to move, "I think I'm about ready to stop. Is that ok with you?"

"Fine with me, I don't think they could handle much more anyway."

Her breathing was still even and only her cheeks showed the strain of hard work. They were flushed a deep red and a few drips of sweat trickled from her hair down her face. She looked over her shoulder to where the guys lay sprawled on the ice and almost laughed, boys were all the same. They never thought that a girl could kick their butt until it was proved without a doubt right in front of them. Now they'd know for next time.

"Hit the showers," Coach Brooks dismissed them with a wave of the hand and turned to walk off the ice heading for his office but he stopped to pat Cecelia on the shoulder, "Good job out there. I think this should kick them into high gear next week for practice."

"Wounded pride can be a powerful motivator."

He leaned closer to keep his words from being overheard, "Good job staying ahead of Johnson; he needed someone to show him that natural speed won't help if he doesn't have the strength to keep it up for a whole game."

"No problem dad."

"I'll see you in an hour or so to head home?"

"Actually I'm sticking around to hang out with some of the guys tonight."

"You seem to have wiggled your way into their group awfully fast," her dad observed with a strange look on his face.

"You know me; I can make friends with a fence post if you give me enough time."

He cracked a smile at her joke and turned to leave, "I'll see you later than sweetie. Have fun."

"Bye daddy."

Cecelia was left alone on the ice and she turned to where all the boys still lay on the ice not moving. She skated closer and stood over Buzz with an amused grin, "Good workout?"

"I can't believe you did that to us," he wheezed out painfully, "Couldn't you have gone easy on us the first time at least?"

"Not in the cards big guy."

"Kick me while I'm down why don't you," Buzz muttered frowning at her unintentional slight. Everyone knew he wasn't the biggest guy on the block, and calling him that in front of the other guys was just embarrassing.

Her expression showed genuine distress over insulting one of the few people who rarely, if ever, let her down, "I'm really sorry Buzzy."

Jack lifted his head to frown at her, "Could you just pretend to be suffering a little from this too? We're all dying here and you look like you've been out for a refreshing leisurely stroll down the block."

Mark Johnson had a hand resting on his chest while he fought to return to a normal breathing pattern, "Has anyone told you that you're damn fast?"

"I've heard it a time or two. You aren't so bad yourself."

"Jack compared you to the energizer bunny one time and I never believed it until right now. That's fucking amazing that you could keep up your speed the whole time."

Cecelia laughed, "Who do you think was the guinea pig for these drills? Your coach is my dad, how could I not be well-conditioned? I've been running herbies for as long as I can remember."

"Herbies?"

"It makes sense doesn't it? He's the only coach I've seen use that drill so I call them herbies."

"Herbies it is then," Rizzo agreed from his location on the ice. He'd recovered enough to push himself up with his elbows to a halfway seated position and instead of being a deep purple color his face had faded to a more normal pinkish tinge, "On behalf of all of us, I want to say that we completely underestimated you."

"I didn't," Mac disagreed, "I knew she was going to kick our butts."

"Could've warned us," Jimmy Craig said without malice.

"I don't think I can feel my legs enough to walk on them," Rammer complained poking at his thigh through his pads, "I can't even feel this." When no one looked over he hit his fist against his leg, "I can't feel that either. Cecelia, I think you paralyzed me."

"You guys are a bunch of babies," Cecelia said, "I run at least this many herbies every day just to keep my legs in shape."

"If you're as good as everyone says you are, you shouldn't even need all this crap conditioning," O.C. claimed more than a little annoyed that a girl had beaten him in anything much less hockey.

"I'm good because of my conditioning. When I play I have to work twice as hard to be better. Playing against guys puts me at a distinct disadvantage because of my size and if I hadn't been faster and more conditioned I would never have managed to play as long as I did," Cecelia argued just as annoyed with Jack because he didn't seem to realize how hard it was to be a girl playing a primarily man's sport, "I hate to break it to you guys but against the Russians you're going to be slower, you're going to be smaller, and you're going to need the conditioning just like I do so get off your butts, get in the shower, and be ready to do this again on Monday."

"I kind of wish your dad had made you play with Barbies and not hockey sticks all these years," Mac whined, "Maybe if he had I wouldn't be in so much damn pain."

"This is just the beginning."

"I think you killed me," Rammer said still poking at his thigh, this time with his hockey stick, "I can't feel a damn thing."

"Your legs aren't used to it, a couple of weeks of this and you'll be fresh as a daisy after running twenty herbies."

"The scary thing is that you're actually serious."

"I'm your coach, not your friend. If you need one of those take it up with Coach Patrick or Doc," Cecelia echoed her father's words from tryouts with a scowl that was the spitting image of Herb's causing the guys to chuckle before she held a hand out to Rammer and attempted to pull him up. Her smile turned impish as she asked, "So, how did it feel being beaten by a girl?"

VV

"Do you have any laundry for me?"Cecelia popped her head in a random doorway the following afternoon and flung a hand over her mouth to silence the next words that were seconds from rolling off her tongue. Mark Johnson lifted his head off the pillow drowsily and peered at the door through half closed eyes his voice husky and rough from sleep, "What?"

"I am so sorry," she whispered stepping inside with the intention of grabbing the pile of dirty clothes and getting out without disturbing him further. He shrugged off the sheet covering him and stood up before she knew what was happening. Her breath caught at the sight of his body clad only in a pair of sweatpants that rode low on his hipbones. His bare chest was a distraction of magnificent proportions. That was the only downside to working with all these male hockey players. It was hard to keep focused when they were always running around half-naked.

"I was just picking up the laundry," Cecelia squeaked out as she dragged her eyes off his half-unclothed body and forced them to meet his eyes instead of ogling him like a piece of pie, "I didn't know you were sleeping or I wouldn't have bothered you."

"Its fine. I should've been up hours ago, but I couldn't fall asleep last night," Mark said taking a step forward and wincing in pain, "Damn, I think I liked it better yesterday when I couldn't feel my legs because man do they kill now."

She cringed with him as he took another painful footstep toward her, "I'm sorry about that too."

"Don't be, you were right about how much we need it."

"Tell that to everyone else, apparently they're none too happy with me this morning either. Mac actually refused to open his door when he realized it was me on the other side."

Cecelia indicated the pile of clothes at her feet in an effort to redirect their conversation before she gave into the melancholy feeling that was threatening after Mac's avoidance "Is this all your laundry?"

"Yeah, but I'm not letting you do my laundry," Mark replied stepping in front of the pile and folding his arms to let her know he meant business.

"Why not, I'm doing it for everyone else on the team? It's part of my job description. All-around slave is my official title I believe," she cracked with a teasing grin.

"You're not doing my laundry, I'm perfectly capable of doing my own without forcing you to do it for me."

"But I'm supposed to," she said putting her hands on her hips and trying to stare him down. Mark didn't look fazed by her attitude, his steely blue eyes meeting her dark brown ones without a single flinch. He stood in front of her, arms crossed prepared for anything she threw at him.

"You have enough things to do without having to do our laundry on top of it."

"Come on Mark, just let me take your dirty clothes and wash them. I'm doing fifty bazillion loads anyway adding your stuff isn't going to make it worse."

"I'd let her take them," Buzzy advised from outside the door apparently having heard them arguing as he walked by, "She always wins in the end."

"You're talking to me?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Cecelia back-pedaled hastily not eager to remind him of why he shouldn't be talking to her. If one of her best friends was going to be mad than she wasn't going to remind the other why he should be ignoring her too, "Um, no reason."

Mark, apparently, was done with their standoff because he picked up his clothes and brushed past her, dumping his laundry into the large basket she'd been pushing along. He ignored her wide-eyed surprise and pushed the basket down the hall knocking on doors as he went, yelling at the boys to bring out their dirty laundry if they wanted it washed. Clothes flew out from the rooms until the basket was heaping with t-shirts, practice jerseys, jeans, and other items of clothing Cecelia didn't care to smell. Mark didn't stop there either; he kept pushing it until he reached the door at the end of the hallway and entered the large laundry room.

She followed him through the door like a lost puppy and watched owl-eyed as he sorted through the clothes throwing them into piles quickly and efficiently. It was only when he whipped out the laundry detergent she'd brought and started measuring it that Cecelia found her voice, "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you with the laundry," he explained as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about it.

"Well I see that, but why?"

"Because you shouldn't have to do everything for us, we're big boys."

"I really don't mind."

"I do," Mark said as he dumped in detergent and started tossing in loads of laundry into the machines, "If I can help you out than I will."

"You could help me by putting on a shirt," she muttered to herself still having a hard time concentrating in light of his half-nakedness.

"What was that?"

Her cheeks flushed a rosy red, "I was just wondering if you were cold."

"Why would I be cold?"

"Uh, you don't have a shirt on. I just thought maybe you were cold," Cecelia defended, fighting to keep her blush under control.

He arched an eyebrow, "It's the middle of August."

"Is it?" she teased trying to keep the mood light, "I hadn't noticed. I've been spending so much time near the ice that I'd almost decided it must be early December."

She hopped up to sit on one of the machines and leaned back to rest on her elbows while Mark finished up loading in the remainder of the clothes, "This is really nice of you."

"I didn't have anything else to do today."

"You've got to be one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. As much as I love the rest of these guys, most of them never would've wasted part of their Saturday doing this."

Mark grimaced a little at the adjective sweet being used in relation with him, but he didn't argue against her statement. Cecelia watched him finish loading the machines and slamming the lids down, "Do you want to know something?"

"What?"

"I think I'm going to like you. As a friend," she clarified lest he get any strange romantic ideas.

"Well I just might like you back. As a friend of course," A huge smile spread across his face, "I hate to break this up, but I'm going to go shower and get dressed. Give me a yell when the laundry's done, I'll come help you drag it back to the rooms." His smile turned to a frown for a minute, "Don't do it all by yourself, just to prove you can. I want to help."

"Aye, aye Captain."

He was halfway out the door before his head popped back through, "I like doing laundry with you; we should do it again next week."

Mark had disappeared down the hallway before she had the presence of mind to answer. "I like doing laundry with you too," she called at the empty doorway hoping that he might still be close enough to hear it.

VV

"Open the door Mac," Cecelia cried later that afternoon holding his pile of clean clothes, "I'm seriously going to kick this damn thing down if you don't open it before I count to ten. One!"

The voice was muffled through the door, but she could clearly hear his words, "You couldn't kick it down. You're too little."

"Try me buddy," she warned giving the door a thump with her foot to emphasize her feelings, "Two!"

"You couldn't do it."

Cecelia looked around and latched onto the first person she saw walking down the hallway, "Well maybe not, but Bah could! Three!"

"What could I do?"

"Kick the door down. I'm on four Mac!"

"Oh, ok," John "Bah" Harrington said looking unconcerned that she'd just offered his foot as battering ram, "Whatever you want sweet cheeks."

"Five!" She yelled before spinning around to glare in Bah's direction, "I'll knock you on your sweet cheeks if you ever call me that again."

"You're getting good. I almost thought you meant that one."

"What's to say I didn't?"

Bah winked at her, "I'm much too cute to hurt."

"Men!" Cecelia threw up her hands in disgust, "You're all the same. Mac I'm going to kill you for this! Six!"

She turned back to Mac's door and resumed her knocking the anger draining from her body all at once in a sudden decline of adrenaline, "Mac? Please don't be mad at me anymore, I don't like it when we fight."

"We're not fighting."

"What do you call locking me out of your room?"

"We're not fighting," Robbie reiterated from behind his door, "I just—"

"Just what?" Cecelia exclaimed before leaning her head against the door and sniffling. Tears had always been the bane of her existence. It didn't matter what emotion she was feeling, the instant it became too strong the tears started flowing fast and furious, "Come on Robbie, I'm going to start crying if you don't open this door soon and—."

Her words were interrupted by another noisy sniffle. "Don't do that," Bah said looking panicked at the thought of being stuck with a weepy female on his hands. He looked at the door and started pounding on it with both fists, "Mac! Open up man! If she starts crying I'm going to beat you senseless!"

The click of the lock being removed was enough to stave off the tears that were forming in the corners of her big brown eyes. The door opened slowly until Robbie's face appeared in the doorway and Cecelia gasped, "Oh Robbie!"

"Kind of why I didn't want to open the door. It got worse"

His eye was swollen and ringed with varying shades of purple, yellow, and green. Her gaze shifted lower and took in the nasty cut on his lip that hadn't seemed so bad yesterday. She reached out to run a finger around his bruised eye lightly, "Does it hurt?"

"Only when you touch it."

She instantly pulled her finger away, "I'm sorry."

"I didn't want to upset you."

"You didn't," Cecelia denied trying to hide the tears that were once again threatening to fall. She swiped at the tears that managed to leak out against her will hating her inability to stay calm, "I'm fine."

Robbie groaned and pulled her into his arms, "Don't cry CeCe, it's not so bad. It looks a lot worse that it really is. You know how bruises are; they look horrible but feel fine."

"I'm not crying." Her words would almost have been convincing if she'd been able to stifle the huge tears drops that were presently rolling down her cheeks, "Ok, I'm crying, but I shouldn't be. I don't even know why I'm crying."

"You're crying because Jack hurt Mac and seeing him all bruised up makes you sad," Bah filled in trying to be helpful.

"Thanks for pointing that out," Mac rolled his eyes at him annoyed, "Just what she needs to hear right now."

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly, "I only have brothers. I never had to deal with the craziness that is the female mind."

"Just don't speak for a few minutes then."

Rob would have continued telling Bah what else he could do, but Cecelia shifted her head off his shoulder and let out a watery giggle, "I'm not crazy."

"Never said you were," Bah quickly put in shooting her one of his most-charming grins and winking, "That was Mac talking, couldn't you tell."

A louder giggle escaped her, "Mac does stick his foot in his mouth a lot doesn't he."

"You can say that again sister."

"You do realize it was really him who said that, right?" Mac asked concerned that her current emotional state was wreaking havoc on her ability to think logically.

"Of course," she answered looking affronted by his question, "I'm not stupid."

Bah smiled at her before shifting his eyes towards Mac surreptitiously, "Most of us aren't."

Mac would've been more irritated if Bah's antics hadn't caused a third more enthusiastic chuckle from the now-smiling Cecelia. Anything was better than feeling helpless in the face of her tears.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah, but I'm going to kick O.C. in the shins next time I see him."

"Well I'm not going to stop you," Mac replied with a grin, "I want to kick him in the shins myself."

"How come you always make me feel better when it should be me making you feel better?"

"What are friends for?"

"Dating?" Bah broke in hopefully, giving Cecelia his best puppy dog eyes.

"Oh Bah, you aren't!" She cried in mock horror.

"Aren't what?"

"Turning into Silky. I can only handle one person who shamelessly flirts with me at a time."

Down the hall a door swung open and the dark-haired boy stuck his head out the door, "Did I just hear my name?"

"I was telling Mac and Bah how cute you are."

His grin widened, "I think you're pretty cute too."

"I know you do Dave."

"If you ever want to run off to Vegas and get married, I wouldn't be opposed," Silky offered, "My mother would love you, she's always talking about grandkids."

"How about next Sunday, maybe we could—"

"Shut the door Silky." Mac commanded laughing at their behavior as he turned back to face her, "You two are weird."

She leaned her head on Mac's shoulder, "Thanks for opening the door."

"Anytime babe."

"How come he can call you pet names?" Bah whined, "I tried calling her sweet cheeks and she almost knocked me on my ass."

Cecelia made a face, "I've given up trying to break him of the habit, but I still have hope that I'll be able to train the rest of you to show a little more respect."

"Some habits are hard to break," Mac offered with a shrug of his broad shoulders, "I've called her babe for so long that sometimes I forget her real name."

"No you don't," she argued slapping him lightly on the stomach, "Don't listen to him Bah. I discovered a long time ago that babe is Robbie-code for favorite person in the world and that's why I haven't beaten it out of him yet. It's kind of cute in a nonsensical, boyishly-charming way."

"That's my specialty."

"Hate to break up the party, but look who's coming," Bah interjected pointing down the hallway.

Mac held unto Cecelia a little tighter, "Now CeCe when I said I wouldn't stop you from hurting him, I didn't really mean that. Just leave it babe, it doesn't matter anymore. Now that Jack's got his anger out of his system, he's behaving like a halfway decent human being so let's just forget it ever happened."

Cecelia smiled at him in reassurance, "I'm not going to hurt him. I'm just going to let him know how I feel about him ever punching you again."

As she turned to face O.C. her smile vanished to be replaced by a glower so dark that Mac and Bah both stepped back eager to avoid her wrath. Jack's smirk melted under the heat of her glare as she approached him.

"Yesterday I said that I'd stay out of your fights with Robbie," she began pleasantly, "But I've since changed my mind."

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when Cecelia shook her head, "No, I'm not done yet."

She began advancing on him again until he was backed up against the hallway wall. O.C. flinched as she raised her hand, but Cecelia just laid it on his chest holding him in place with the gentlest of touches.

"If you ever, ever, touch Robbie again," she warned with quiet murderous intent, "You won't live to regret it and if by some miracle you do survive, you're going to wish you hadn't because I will have you singing soprano for a week."

Another step forward brought her close enough to Jack that their bodies were almost touching, "And I can do all that with only one swift knee to the—"

"Well," Cecelia glanced down and then back up to his face, "I'm pretty sure you know where."

O.C. nodded his agreement as she back away from and him and sighed, "Boy am I glad that's settled. You didn't happen to see Buzzy on the way here did you Jack?"

"Um, last time I saw him he was playing poker with Verchota and Pav."

"Awesome. I promised him I'd come find him later so I think I'll head down there now. Have a good day boys."

"Wasn't she just mad at me?" Jack asked as she skipped her way down the hallway.

Mac stepped to stand beside him watching her leave, "She wasn't really mad, she was just upset about me being hurt. Now that she's let you know what will happen if I ever have another bruise caused by you again she'll be fine."

"She was ok with you hitting me yesterday but I knew that the minute she saw the bruise she'd freak out," Mac continued after another minute or so had passed, "If it makes you feel better I tried to save you."

"How's that?"

Bah offered up the explanation, "He locked her out of the room and wasn't going to open the door until his bruise faded so she wouldn't get mad. I was about to break it down when he finally opened it because she was going to start crying and there's no way in hell that I wanted to be stuck with a crying Cecelia."

"You made her cry?"

Mac frowned, "I didn't mean to. I never know how she's going to react. One day she'll cry over something like that and the next day she'll just get mad and refuse to speak to me until I grovel my way back into her good graces. I'm pretty sure she's on her period. It's getting to be that time of the month. Cecelia and her period don't get along very well; she's always really moody and unpredictable. It's not a good week for anyone who has to be within five feet of her."

"I didn't need to know that," O.C. wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Remind me to never become such good friends with a girl that I actually know when she has her period."

"I'll keep it in mind."

Bah laughed surprisingly unaffected by all the talk about female menstruation considering he had no sisters to educate him on such important topics, "Isn't this a touching scene? Our two little rivals bonding over the resident crazy female and her period."

"Shut up Bah!" The unison yell from Mac and O.C. only served to amuse him more and he walked off to his room chuckling randomly in remembrance, slapping his leg when he was particularly tickled by a thought, and leaving two irritated hockey players in his wake.

"Damn Minnesotans," Jack muttered stomping off to his room, "Not a lick of sense to split between themselves."

"Well you're not such a picnic yourself," Robbie shot back trailing after him to their room. Sometimes he wished life could be a little less interesting but with a girl on her period, a moody boy from Boston, and twenty or so other random guys running around he wasn't holding his breath.


	4. We're Planning A Party

Cecelia stepped on the ice gingerly, loving the feelings that wrapped around her the minute her skates touched the ice. Skating with the team during conditioning was one thing, but it was the time she spent after practice skating alone that she truly treasured. Every Friday afternoon after her dad let out practice for the day she waited until all the boys cleared out and skated to her heart's content while Herb finished up his work for the day. It was a time of solitude and reflection that helped to offset the crazy lifestyle she'd somehow ended up a part of.

She pushed off with her right foot sending herself into motion swiftly and smoothly. The cool air in the skating rink draped sweet and clean enveloping her as she circled the enclosed ice. After fifteen minutes of leisurely skating Cecelia grabbed her hockey stick and dropped a puck to the ice. She kicked the puck into motion and followed behind it catching it with her stick smiling at the familiar sensation of the action. "Brooks cuts in to swiftly snatch the puck from an unsuspecting number three," she spoke in a commentator's voice imagining the ice filled with players and the stands full of screaming fans.

Kicking her speed into high gear Cecelia stick handled the puck down the ice, "She skates down the side, sticking close to the boards avoiding blocks from her fellow hockey players."

Cecelia shifted to skate backwards for a moment and then whipped to her right in a circle pulling off one of her signature maneuvers, "The wonderful Miss Brooks feints to the right and outwits the waiting defenders. The goalie is looking nervous, but Brooks isn't slowing."

Cecelia bounced the puck off the wall and wrapped it around the net to pick up her own pass on the other side and she shot it into the net. "Another goal for Brooks, making her the teams leading offensive player and scorer," she cried holding up her stick in triumph and doing a victory lap.

She fished the puck out from the net and circled back to the other end of the rink to run another imaginary play. Just as she was about to start up her commentary again, the rasping sounds of another skater filled her ears. Before Cecelia could see who it was, the puck was stolen out from in front of her."

"McClanahan steals the puck from number forty-one Cecelia Brooks with ease. His stylish play has been a crowd-pleaser all evening, but is it sufficient to hold off Brooks' excellent defense long enough for a chance to score another goal?"

Cecelia smiled at Mac's sudden appearance, but instantly chased after him unwilling to let him get too far away from her, "Brooks is in hot pursuit of the young hot shot from Minnesota."

"McClanahan sees her coming and shifts the puck out of her reach."

"The two young players face off against each other, neither willing to let up."

Mac grinned as Cecelia skated backwards in front of him, not giving an inch, "Can McClanahan find a way around this one-woman wonder? Or will he be shot down yet again by the lovely young lady from Minneapolis?"

"Brooks makes her move, rushing McClanahan who looks completely unprepared for such an attack. She kicks the puck behind him and darts around to race toward the other end on a straightaway. Can she be stopped?"

Mac followed her down the ice not even trying to keep up, "He stays behind Brooks enjoying the view from the back."

"Brooks thinks that McClanahan is a dirty pervert."

"McClanahan doesn't deny the obvious."

Cecelia almost fell over laughing at his reply, but fought to keep her concentration long enough for a shot. She hit a neat slap-shot into the net and skated in a quick circle before approaching Mac again, "Brooks thinks that it's about time for McClanahan to stop speaking in the third person."

"McClanahan will if Brooks does," Robbie grinned at her as she skated up next to him falling in line with him.

"All right I'm done," she conceded, "So what are you doing out here anyway? I assumed all of you would be back in your rooms by now."

"I was, but I forgot my wallet so I had to come back."

"And then you couldn't resist the call of the ice, huh?"

"I prefer to think it was the call of who was on the ice."

"That was smooth," Cecelia noted before rolling her eyes and chuckling, "I bet you say that to all the girls Casanova."

"Only the cute ones."

"Well at least I'm cute then."

"So what were you doing out here?"

Cecelia skated backwards again in front of him so they could talk face to face, "That's easy, I'm practicing."

"For what?"

"I guess nothing," she replied wrinkling up her nose at the sudden thought, "I'm just so used to spending every waking hour skating that I don't know what to do with myself now that I don't need to."

"Must be nice," Mac mused, "I wouldn't mind a break from practicing."

"You say that now, but you'd hate it."

"I doubt it."

"Yes you would. You'd hate it just like I do," CeCe predicted, "Hockey is as much a part of your life as it is mine. I barely know what to do with myself now that I'm not part of a team anymore. No practices, no games, no nothing."

"You're helping to coach our team so technically you're part of a team," he reasoned looking for the proverbial bright side, "Doesn't that count?"

"It's not the same and even if it was, that's what? Another five months and then what am I supposed to do? After this I have to grow up and go find a real job. No more hockey for me, at least not in the way I'm used to."

Mac looked horrified at the prospect of her leaving hockey behind forever, "I can't imagine never playing on a team with you again."

"I hate to break it to you Robbie, but there aren't a lot of positions open for girls in the NHL. I've gone as far as I can with hockey. Now I have to find something else I love."

"I'm sorry."

Cecelia laughed, "For what? You didn't do anything to me. This isn't a big news flash to me Mac. This has been looming over my head since the first moment I put on a pair of hockey skates. I always knew that eventually I'd have to do something else. It's not a bad thing; it's just a different thing. And you know what? I don't need to play on a team to be happy, I just need to be able to skate and I can do that no matter what, so life is good baby."

"If it was me I don't think I could look at it like that."

"Yes you would and eventually you'll have to. Hockey doesn't last forever you know, someday you won't be able to play for a living anymore either. It's hard and it doesn't feel good, but you learn to accept it. After you do that, you go out and find something new to kick ass at instead, just like I'm going to."

"You do kick ass," Mac marveled.

"I'm glad you finally noticed. It's only taken you the last twenty-one years to figure it out."

He was silent for a moment before speaking again, "It doesn't matter if we're on the same team or not because you and I will always be our own team."

"Mac-"

Her next words were cut off by a hollered "CeCe!"

Mac looked behind him to see Coach Brooks standing by the entrance. He held up his hand in greeting before turning back to Cecelia, "It looks like your dad is ready to leave. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thank you for skating with me this afternoon. I miss hanging out with you."

"I see you every day," Robbie pointed out.

"It's not the same."

His eyes darkened almost imperceptibly as he met her gaze with an intense stare of his own, "I know."

"I miss you too," he finally admitted looking uncomfortable with the depth of feeling behind his words. He sought to lighten the mood and grinned, "Let's face it, you and I have a kickass time together. You're a fun girl."

"I'm always fun, you should know that by now." Cecelia wiggled her fingers one last time in farewell as she skated off to join her dad leaving Mac standing alone in the middle of the ice unsure of what had just happened, or not happened.

VV

"All right boys," Mike Ramsey plopped down on the couch in the commons room between Phil Verchota and Bill Baker a few days later, "We've got a party to plan and only two weeks to do it."

"For you?" Bah asked, "If that's who it's for I don't want any part of it."

Rammer frowned at his friend, but didn't waste his breath arguing, "No, for Cecelia. It's almost her birthday and I think we should do something special for it."

"What did you have in mind?" Bob Suter, the other player from the University of Wisconsin, asked putting down his newspaper in order to follow the conversation.

"That's the part we need to talk about. I have no idea what kind of party a twenty-something girl wants to have."

"She's going to be twenty-two," Mark Johnson replied without looking up from the game of checkers he was playing with Rizzo on the floor.

"Ok, I don't know what kind of party a going on twenty-two year old wants to have."

Bah looked over at Silky slyly and started to put in his own idea for the party, "Maybe we should go—"

"If you say bowling," Dave Silk broke in, "I will not hesitate to kill you."

"I was going to say swimming," he said trying to look hurt by Silky's assumption.

"Anyway," Rammer broke in, "Back to real ideas for the party now."

"Why don't you ask Mac or Buzz?" O.C. suggested lazily from the corner where he was wrapping and unwrapping his hockey stick with tape for no reason other than that he was bored.

"They're both visiting their parents for the weekend and besides we're capable of thinking up good ideas without them. We're all big boys."

O.C. shrugged, "It would be easier with them, and they know her better than any of us do."

Verchota snapped his fingers and almost fell over in his haste to stand up, "Roller skating!"

"Excuse me?" Rammer asked annoyed that the boys weren't taking this seriously, "Verchota we don't have time to go roller skating right now, maybe later."

"No, we should have her party at a roller rink. She loves to skate, she loves to have fun. Where else do you skate and have fun at the same time? It's perfect."

"That Minnesota brain power is coming in handy now," Rammer exclaimed clapping Verchota on the shoulder with enthusiasm, "Good call. A roller skating party is the best idea I've heard so far."

Jack lifted an eyebrow sardonically, "It's the only idea you've heard."

Rammer ignored him and continued on with his plans as he got up to pace the room, "I think it should be a surprise party. Should we invite all her other friends or keep it just us? How about her family? What about food? Are we thinking homemade food or just chips and stuff? We need to buy presents. How are we going to have time to do all this with practice and work-outs? This is impossible, I just can't—"

"Slow down Mike," Pav cut in forcing him to stop his movements, "One thing at a time man. Let's start at the beginning. Are we going for a surprise party?"

"Definitely," Bob Suter replied after catching the rest of the nods from around the room.

"Is it a party for everyone or are we keeping it just people connected to the team?"

"Connected to the team," Rizzo offered his opinion and when no one voiced an argument against it, except Silky who muttered something about there not being enough girls invited, they moved onto the next topic.

"All right," Pav said, "Last thing on the agenda for today: food. What are going to do about it?"

A call for "Pizza!" rang out from across the entire room. "Well ok then. Are we going to do a cake?"

"We have to have a cake," Rammer said looking around ready to shoot down anyone who said otherwise, "Ooh and we need decorations too."

Pav looked around the room, "Who wants to be in charge of finding a roller skating rink?"

Steve Janaszak, the backup goalie, raised his hands followed by Bill Baker "We can do it. My little sister had her birthday party at a rink a few months ago."

"Ok Jannie and Baker are in charge of location. Who wants to order the pizza?"

Rizzo looked up, "I can do that. How many pizzas do you think we need?"

"I'd say at least ten or so. Just order a bunch of different kinds," Verchota replied after doing some quick math in his head, "Last but not least, who's going to bake the cake?"

The guys all glanced down at the floor unwilling to volunteer for such a feminine task that was beyond their skills as a man. Jimmy Craig who'd been watching in silence from the doorway stepped into the room, "I can do it."

Rammer looked at Jimmy in awe, "You bake?"

"Is that a problem?" Jimmy asked staring him down until Rammer looked away blushing.

"I'll help you," Mark Johnson said nodding toward their goalie.

Rammer got over his shock and wrapped an arm around Bah's shoulders, "We'll be in charge of decorations and apparel for the birthday girl."

"Lord save us all," Pav replied looking toward the ceiling.

"It'll be good, have a little faith Pav. I've got all sorts of ideas."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Rammer and Bah hurriedly withdrew into a corner to discuss their plans in secret. Every few minutes a laugh would ring out from their little circle and their animated conversation would have been interesting to watch if all the other guys hadn't been secretly terrified of what they were cooking up. Poor Cecelia wouldn't even know what hit her.

"They are way too happy about this," Suter remarked to Johnson who was still engrossed in his checkers game and didn't reply. Rizzo was waiting for Mark to decide on a move and answered for him, "I'm not sure I want to be there when they pull out their version of apparel and decorations for a birthday party."

Silky leaned over the arm of his chair to join the conversation, "Maybe they'll bring strippers. That's nice decorating if you ask me."

"I don't think Cecelia would agree, but I wouldn't put it past them. Anything is possible when you put those two in charge of a birthday party." Mark said as he triumphantly double jumped Rizzo, "King me."

"Damn."

"So a surprise party, huh?" O.C. said after a silence filled minute or two, "That ought to be fun. I better dust off my party hat."

His wry comment made them chuckled before they all lapsed back to what they'd been doing before Rammer's impassioned decree as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but each boy knew that deep down they were clandestinely looking forward to the execution of their newest plot.

VV

"Why are Bah and Rammer looking at me like that," Cecelia whispered to Buzzy as he helped her replace the laces on all the hockey skates a job that she enjoyed strictly because it afforded her an opportunity to spend time with her friend, "They've been doing it all week now and it's starting to make me nervous."

Buzz hid his amused smile choosing instead to keep his eyes focused on the hockey skate he was re-lacing, "I don't know that's just Bah and your baby being normal."

"No this is weird even for them. This morning they asked me if I knew the circumference of my head and the length from my shoulder to my hip on the other side of my body in centimeters. Those aren't normal questions that you hear every day."

"Ok, I agree with you there. Those aren't run of the mill questions, but I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of it. I'm sure they'll tell you eventually."

Hiding anything from Cecelia was hard and naturally none of the guys seemed capable of acting even the slightest bit inconspicuous or secretive around her. Buzz was surprised that she hadn't guessed that she was the target of their most recent scheming yet. Luckily for them her father had been keeping her busy before, during, and after practices. If she wasn't running drills with them on the ice, she was doing paperwork in his office, making phone calls to set up games and scrimmages, or chasing after the guys making sure they had everything needed to ensure they were happy and healthy.

Most of the guys felt semi-responsible for her huge workload and tried to pitch in where ever they could to help her out. The guys had started doing their own laundry at Mark's command and instead of letting her take care of them; they all went out of their way to take care of her instead. It was a situation that she seemed to appreciate even if sometimes their refusal to let her do what she considered to be her job annoyed her.

"Now that I think about it, Mac has been acting funny too," Cecelia was still talking unaware that Buzzy's mind was preoccupied with thoughts of something else entirely, "It's almost like he's avoiding me, but not. Do you know what I mean? I haven't had a chance to spend time with just him in days. Every time I see him he's surrounded by a group of boys or if he's not he will be within minutes of seeing me. I just don't get it."

"Sure," Buzz nodded focusing only on not accidentally giving away their surprise with a careless slip of the tongue in regards to her suspicions. He and the other boys had been helping to run interference between Robbie and CeCe all week because Mac was positive that he wouldn't be able to keep their secret a secret if she got him alone for an uninterrupted length of time together. It was a complicated system of making sure Robbie was never alone at times when Cecelia could hypothetically come near him and all the boys were involved in one way or another.

"Are you listening to me?"

His head snapped up, "Of course I'm listening to you, but I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't know what's up with the strange questions Rammer and Bah keep throwing your way and Mac hasn't said anything to me about avoiding you so maybe you're just being too sensitive about everything."

Cecelia's mouth opened and closed silently for a moment until her mind caught up with her mouth and an irritated retort was seconds from flying off her tongue when like an angel from God Herb stepped out a doorway down the hallway looking three steps beyond frazzled, "Cecelia!"

Her annoyed reply was forgotten as she caught a glimpse of his rumpled clothing and disheveled hair, "Uh-oh, I think I better go see what he needs." Buzz didn't have a chance to say anything before she was on her feet and bounding down the hallway to calm her dad's nerves.

Buzz sighed and rested his forehead on his hands for a minute thankful that Herb had interrupted what looked to have been the beginning of an unintentional argument. When he sat up after a minute it was to see Bah and Rammer flashing him enthusiastic thumbs-ups from their table on the other side of the room completely unconcerned about how suspicious they were making their prey and how hard Buzzy had been working to keep her unaware of the situation. Perhaps it was time for them to hear about it, he decided standing up.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Buzz asked as he approached them, "If you don't stop staring at her like that and asking such stupid questions our surprise party isn't going to be much of a surprise. Speaking of your stupid questions, why do you need to know the circumference of her head and how long her torso is from a shoulder to the opposite hip?"

Both boys looked down at their feet to hide identical grins. "No reason," they chorused together appearing as innocent as choirboys when their eyes met Buzzy's a few seconds later.

"Just try and avoid saying anything else ridiculous to her for the next week and maybe this will all go as planned."

"Don't worry Buzz, everything is under control. Come next Saturday Cecelia's going to be having the party of her dreams. No doubt about it."

"No doubt about it," Bah echoed Rammer emphatically nodding to reinforce his dedication to their mission, "We won't let you down."

"I'm counting on it," Buzz replied with a brief smile in their direction. God help him, he actually believed that they were going to pull it off too, "But for future reference the constant undercover spying on her should be done with a little more discretion."

"We'll keep it mind," Rammer promised as he dragged Bah off with little fanfare right in the middle of their conversation with Buzz, "If you'll excuse us, we still have to discuss the rest of the details surrounding Operation P.P.P.W.G."

"What does P.P.P.W.G. stand for?"

"Um, nothing. You'll see later."

Buzz became a little suspicious when both boys turned an interesting shade of red underneath his examination, but let it pass not sure if he actually wanted to know the thoughts that ran through their minds on a regular basis.

VV

Down the hallway out of hearing distance Cecelia was in the process of poking her head in the doorway to her dad's office, "Did you need me to do something? Or were you just randomly screaming my name down different hallways for fun?"

Herb stopped his pacing of the office long enough to glance her way, "Did you know that we're leaving for Norway in approximately fifteen days? Not only that, but as of right now we have no plane tickets, no hotel reservations, and on a slightly smaller scale we have no transportation arrangements figured out in case by some act of God we actually make it to Norway when we're supposed to."

His pacing resumed and the back and forth motion was starting to make Cecelia feel beyond queasy, "Um, dad?"

"I can't believe it. I have fifteen days to arrange transportation, lodging, and how am I going to find an airline service with enough space for twenty-six boys and four coaches to fly to Norway with only two weeks' notice?"

"Dad."

"That's right, it can't be done. What was I thinking? I've just—"

"Dad!" CeCe practically screamed to get his attention and sighed in relief when his pacing stopped again so he could focus on what she was going to say and her stomach could finally stop rolling, "You might've forgotten about all that stuff, but I didn't. You asked me over two months ago to figure out arrangements for our trips. I've had everything booked since then."

"We have airplane tickets?"

"We're flying Northwest with a layover in New York before we get on the connecting flight to Norway."

"We have a—"

"We're staying at some chalet that the Norwegian hockey coach recommended when I called him. Complimentary breakfast, two restaurants on sight, nice rooms, and best of all its within two miles of the hockey rink we'll be playing on."

"And transportation?"

"Buses are hired and will be there to pick us up at all the times you wrote down for me last week. Don't you remember me asking you about practice schedules?"

"Oh you're good."

"I'm not good, I'm just efficient."

Herb breathed deeply for a minute while his blood pressure lowered back down to a normal range, "I thought I was going to have a heart attack there for a minute."

"Don't worry daddy, I've got everything under control. That's what I'm here for."

"Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're here for this?"

"Only every other day, but it's always nice to hear again. Who knew I'd turn out to be such a good organizer? I'm having a lot of fun with this."

"I've noticed," her dad replied with a rueful shake of his head, "You and those boys are practically inseparable these days. I used to be afraid that you'd fall in love with one of them but now I'm afraid they're all going to end up falling in love with you."

"They're nice boys. None of them look at me differently for playing hockey, and I like that. I've never met so many people who are willing to like me despite the killer conditioning I put them through on a daily basis."

The last sentence was said with an impertinent grin that fit with the pseudo-sentimental statement, but beneath Cecelia's glib words the underlying loyal affection toward the men who'd only recently entered her life was clearly visible. She might pretend to joke about the newfound friendships, but if they were ever threatened she'd fight with every ounce of her being to keep them.

"Remember what I said about—"

"I know dad, don't date your players. You don't have to remind me every five minutes, I remember and I won't do it. None of them want to date me anyway now that they've seen my nasty temper," she ended her answer with the tiny joke to lighten the mood causing her dad to smile at his eldest daughter.

"I'm not trying to be annoying. I just don't want you to get hurt and I don't want my players turning into a bunch of lovesick wussies over you."

"No lovesick wussies around here," Cecelia replied holding her hands up to illustrate her point, "I'm going to go finish up those skates I was working on earlier unless Buzz did them all without me. Let me know if you need me later, ok?"

"Ok," Herb shooed her out the door with a smile, "Get out of here. Go have fun or whatever it is you kids do these days."

"I'm pretty sure fun is still en vogue with the wild crazy kids today. Not that much has changed since the stone ages when you were a teenager dad."

"Out."

Cecelia was still laughing as she shut the door behind her and ran smack dab into a broad chest. A mixture of welcome, then apprehension, and finally terror crossed Robbie's face when he realized who he'd run into. Her laughter died at the unusual emotions running rampant in his eyes and across his face.

"Hey you," she greeted him unsure what to make of his strange behavior lately, "Long time, no see buddy."

His smile was wan and tight not at all like his usual toothy grins blanketed on both sides by those hallmark dimples of his that girls seemed to love so much. "Is something wrong?" she asked looking up at him with concern. It wasn't like Robbie to hide his problems from her or to be so emotionally withdrawn. It just wasn't normal.

Panic lit a fire behind his eyes before he snuffed it out to flash another more realistic smile her way, "Nope. I'm just a little tired."

"Ok," she replied still studying him in an attempt to figure out his strange recent behavior, "It feels like forever since I've seen you."

"It hasn't been that long," Mac denied struggling to remain calm in the face of her interrogation and failing miserably, "I've just been busy and stuff with the team."

"Seriously Robbie, you're acting really weird. What's up?"

"Nothing," he denied again more vehemently, "There's nothing wrong with me."

'Are you sure? You've been acting sort of funny these past few days."

"I'm positive," Robbie said fighting for a nonchalant, easygoing tone, but ending up with a high-pitched nervous tone accompanied by the occasional squeak that Cecelia narrowed in on right off the bat.

"You just squeaked."

"I did what?"

Cecelia advanced on him, "You squeaked. The only time you squeak is when you're really nervous and you're never really nervous around me except for when you have a secret."

Mac backed up as she approached feeling his resolve cracking a little more with each step she took, "I don't have a secret. You're just being paranoid."

"I've been hearing that a lot today."

"Well then maybe everything is all in your head."

"What's going on Mac?" she asked stepping closer yet to him.

He squeaked again as he bravely waged the war to hold onto his composure, "Nothing's wrong."

"You're a horrible liar."

"I'm not lying."

Cecelia reached out to rub her palm on his back in small circles, "It's ok Mac, you can tell me your secrets."

Robbie fought the overwhelming urge to jump away from her touch, forcing himself instead to remain calm, "What secret? There's no secret. Why would you think I have a secret? There's no secret."

Ok so much for staying calm. _She can't make you tell her_ he repeated silently as a mantra hoping that one time it would actually ring true. He was this close to breaking down under her eagle-eyed stare. All his life he'd been unable to keep anything a secret from Cecelia for long and this was proving to be no exception. It was partly because she always knew when he was lying and partly because she could scare Satan with that stare of hers. Oh no, he was cracking. He was going to tell her and everyone was going to kill him. He was—

"Mac, we've been looking all over for you."

He sighed in relief as his two makeshift saviors hustled down the hallway in their direction. Mark Pavelich and Phil Verchota had his eternal gratitude for their timely intervention.

Pav smiled at Cecelia before grabbing Rob by the arm, "O.C. needs you."

Cecelia wasn't going to be outmaneuvered so easily when she was only seconds away from discovering their secret, "What does Jack need Mac for? Last time I checked they were still barely speaking civilly to each other."

Verchota wrapped an arm around her and turned up the charm, "They're getting along much better now and I can't tell you why O.C. needs Mac because it's a guy thing. You know, very hush-hush."

"Fine," she catapulted but warned them all, "I'm on to you guys. I don't know what you're hiding, but I'm going to find out one way or another."

"Like we'd hide anything from you," Pav declared looking shocked by her accusation, "Trust me love, by now we all know that we can't get anything past you. No one could hope to hide something from such a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful creature such as you."

"I'm so on to you guys," Cecelia shot back fighting her laughter at his over-the-top blatant flattery, "And none of your flattery is going to change that."

"Well I tried," Pav shrugged not looking particularly distressed, "If you don't mind, we're going to take Mac now so you can't continue to harass the poor guy about something you're not supposed to know anyway."

"So the secret is about me?"

Verchota just smiled, "We'll never tell."


	5. Operation PPPWG

"Buzzy I don't want to go grocery shopping," Cecelia whined with a pout as she sat in the passenger seat of his old beat-up Honda Accord driving down Highway 100 South in the Twin Cities, "Can't we go tomorrow or something?"

"You didn't have to come," Buzz pointed out ignoring her complaints with the same calm, level-headed approach he'd been employing since the day they met, "You're the one who wanted to come."

Grocery shopping with Buzz, while normally a favored activity, was not how she wanted to be spending her twenty-second birthday. Although what he said was true, she had been the one to offer her services when he'd mentioned that his mother had loaded him down with a grocery list that if held up would measure to almost approximately the same height as Mount Everest.

"I know I did," she agreed sorry that Buzz had to put up with her when she was in such a horrible mood, "I don't know what's wrong with me. It's my birthday, I should be happy right? But instead I'm being whiny and annoying and just plain stupid."

"I wouldn't say stupid."

"Oh thanks Buzzy. I'm not stupid, but I am whiny and annoying?"

Buzz glanced over at her as he put his blinker on and changed lanes, "If the shoes fits darling."

"Now I know why I came with you," Cecelia replied smiling at him as he exited off to the right of the road, "You always know just what to say to make me feel better."

"Some might call it a gift."

"Some might call you a meanie."

"I can't believe you just called me a meanie," He laughed at her lame insult as he searched for his turn, "What are you five?"

"No, but that could be your I.Q."

"Girl, that was harsh."

She leaned across the car to lay her head on his shoulder, "It's why you love me."

"That's so true. There's nothing I love more than a girl who mentally abuses me with insults that even a toddler could come up with."

"See? I'm good for something."

"Even a blind squirrel eventually finds a nut."

"Now who's being harsh?"

Buzz shot her an innocent look, "You again?"

"I really do hate you, you know."

"No you don't."

"Do too."

No you don't because if you hated me you wouldn't be in the car with me right now."

Cecelia reached over to squeeze his hand resting on the seat between them and couldn't resist sending him a small wink, "Sometimes you're entirely too smart for your own good Sherlock."

"Have I told you Happy Birthday?"

"Yes, but you can tell me again."

"Happy Birthday CeCe."

Another smile was his reward for breaking the pattern and saying the right thing for once in his life, "Thanks. I'm practically as old you are now."

"Two and a half more years and you're there."

Cecelia looked out the window and then at him with a quizzical expression, "Where are we? This isn't the way to the grocery store."

"There's more than one grocery store honey."

"But we always go to the same one," she argued straining her neck around to try and find a landmark that would help her get her bearings about where they were. Her forehead was wrinkled by the frown marring her delicate facial features, "Seriously, where are we?"

"I've kidnapped you," he deadpanned still not willing to give away their secret too early, "Once we're across the border you'll be all mine."

"Exactly what border are you talking about? Wisconsin? Ooh or maybe Iowa? I love Iowa. Maybe we should start heading west then we could cross the border into the Dakotas that might be fun."

"Ok fine, you caught me. We're not crossing any borders. My dad asked me to stop and pick something up at one of his warehouses so we're making a quick pit stop."

His explanation seemed to put her mind at ease because the frown disappeared and was replaced by another of her trademark smiles as the radio caught her attention. She reached forward to turn up the volume, "I love this song."

Thankfully the fast beat of the song kept her occupied bouncing about in the passenger seat long enough for Buzz to pull into the back parking lot of the roller rink so she wouldn't see the big sign out front and ruin the surprise.

"We're here."

Cecelia looked up at the dark building, "I didn't know your dad had another warehouse around here."

Buzz took her arm and steered her toward the back door, "It's one of his older ones. He doesn't use it very much anymore, mostly it's only used for storage of his out of date equipment."

The hallway they entered was dark and the air smelled damp and musty. Her hand found his in the dark, her fingers lacing with his in a death grip. He stifled his laughter over her fear of the dark corridor knowing that it wouldn't do to annoy her so close to surprise time. They finally reached the door that would lead them into the main lobby of the roller rink and Buzz gripped Cecelia's hand tighter as he opened the door and pushed it open bathing them in a sudden stream of light.

They walked through the doorway into a shower of confetti and glitter raining down over them in glorious splendor punctuated by the sounds of cheering and hooting echoing through the air. Shouts of _Happy Birthday_ rang out from all four corners of the lobby and Cecelia looked around amazed as the confetti cascaded over her and a beaming smile spread across her face as she caught sight of all the boys clapping for her.

"Is this for my birthday?" she cried holding out her hands to catch the scraps of pink and white paper intermixed with large flakes of glitter turning in a circle to see everything at once, "This is amazing!"

Rammer and Bah stepped forward with a large box decorated with a large silver bow, "That's not all. This is for you. The other presents will come later, but you need to have this one right away."

She hugged them both and took the box with a large grin, "I wonder what this could be." There was no hesitation as CeCe ripped open the box and the look on her face was priceless as she held up first a sparkly silver tiara with pink crystals dotting it here and there. The next item out of the box was a white sash with the words Birthday Girl embroidered on it in a matching shade of bright pink. A squeal erupted from her as she pulled out the last item yet another item in bright pink but this time it was a feather boa that Cecelia promptly wrapped around her neck and preened for the camera her mother was using to capture the incredible moment.

The other guys who hadn't known what was in the box beforehand, had to admit that the two boys had hit the nail square on the head when it came to what Cecelia would like for her birthday. The gifts fit her personality perfectly. The magic that was Rammer and Bah's birthday planning was beyond comprehension for everyone in the room.

Earlier in the day they'd road-tripped down to the rink to hang decorations and transform the place into a wonderland of sparkly glitter and numerous shades of pink fit for a princess. The amazement in Cecelia's eyes was thanks enough to the boys who had worked tirelessly for the past two weeks on their plans every moment they had free, sometimes staying up late into the night discussing their plans and how best to make them a reality.

Her hand was still over her mouth as she surveyed the streamers, lights, and other decorations dotting the normally less-than-exciting area. She gazed over to her right and gasped, "Are we at a roller rink?"

Rammer wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "That we can't take credit for. Coming here was all Verchota's idea, and Jannie and Baker found the best rink in the area for us to rent out. Bah and I did the decorating and the other boys pitched in for everything else; food, invites, the cake."

"You guys baked me a cake?"

"Well that part of it was handled by Jimmy and Johnson so I'm not vouching for the aesthetic quality, but I'm hoping it's at least edible."

She gazed around some more trying to wrap her mind around the sights in front of her. Christmas lights decorated every pole and ledge making the whole rink a mass of twinkling lights and even the roller skates that were sitting out for her to wear had been re-laced with pink shiny ribbons instead of boring shoelaces. Everything was perfect, "This really is amazing. I can't believe you did this for me."

Buzz bumped her lightly with his shoulder, "Aren't you glad you came with me now?"

"You lied to me!" Cecelia sucked in a deep breath and stared at him in wide-eyed shock, "I can't believe you managed to get us here without me suspecting a thing."

"It was harder than you think," Pav broke in, "Do you have any idea how hard it's been to keep Mac out of your clutches these past two weeks? Every time one of us turned around you had him cornered in some hallway or room and we'd have to think of a new way to rescue him from you."

"Sorry about that," she flushed a deep red and held her arms out to encompass the entire room, "I just never imagined it would be a something like this." Cecelia frowned at Bah and Rammer and shook her index finger at them while speaking to the rest of the guys, "You'd ask questions too if they'd asked you for the circumference of your head in centimeters."

"We wanted the crown to fit," Bah protested as the other guys heckled them.

"Hey Rammer," Buzz said looking over at him with a gleam in his eye, "Are you going to tell us what Operation P.P.P.W.G. means now?

Rammer mumbled something indistinguishable and Buzzy had to ask again knowing instinctively that the answer was going to be damn funny, "What was that?"

"I said it stands for pretty pink princess with glitter," he enunciated in annoyance trying to cover the heat of embarrassment on his face.

"Did you just say pretty pink princess with glitter?" Pav crowed not bothering to hide his amusement over the ludicrous words coming out of the big tough hockey player's mouth.

Rammer and Bah both scowled at the laughing crowd around them. "It was our theme," Bah asserted, "It was the inspiration behind our decorating genius."

"I think it's great," Cecelia declared shooting death glares at anyone who dared to show their amusement over the theme of her birthday party, "This is the best thing anyone has ever done for me."

Mac's mouth opened to speak, but CeCe cut him off, "Yes Mac that does include everything you've ever done for me and no none of it was better than this even though you like to think so."

"It's scary how you do that," he muttered annoyed that the other two boys had managed to steal his proverbial thunder and had wheedled their way into his best friend's good graces.

His annoyance didn't last for long as Cecelia gazed around again looking like a kid in a candy store. Her eyes were still as wide as saucers over the magnitude of her surprise and Mac was willing to bet that every guy present was proud to have been a part of putting that look in her eyes.

Cecelia's eyes paused in their exploration as her roving eyes stopped on her pink-ribboned skates, "Can we go skating now?"

"Your wish is my command Princess," Phil Verchota said as he swept her up in his arms to carry her over to where the skates lay in waiting. Cecelia giggled merrily at his gallant attention and she even allowed him to place the skates on her feet and lace up the ribbons tightly around her ankles.

"I'm not even going to be mad at you for calling me Princess," she replied holding his hand as she hopped off the table he'd sat her on.

He smiled at her, "It seems fitting today since you do have the crown."

"Fair enough, today you can call me those ridiculous pet names you all seem to enjoy so much, but come tomorrow its back to Cecelia."

"Whatever you say your Highness."

"Take me to the rink," she commanded imperiously with a wave of her hand in the direction she wanted to go and Verchota obliged lifting her into his arms again and walking to the wooden floor sparkling from the overhead lights that swept across the rink in a dizzying array of colors.

Cecelia glanced over his shoulder and frowned at all the boys who still hadn't moved, "Well aren't you coming?"

VV

Cecelia glided to a stop as a sudden craving for pizza hit her. Luckily for her the pause allowed a narrow escape from the wildly careening Rizzo who slammed into a wall right in front of her. He bounced off the wall and swung his arms to balance, but only ended up throwing himself backward onto his butt even harder.

"You know for being such a great skater on ice," Cecelia said crouching down to face level with him, "On wheels you kind of suck."

"Oh you noticed?" he questioned after his attempt to push himself up and off the hard ground failed, "And here I thought no one could tell."

"You'd have to be blind to miss it," she grasped his hand and tugged with all her strength, "But even then they'd probably be able to hear your crashes so I guess they'd have to be deaf and blind, but even then—"

Rizzo held up a hand to stop her, "All right, I get it. I'm a horrible roller skater. No need to tell me twice."

"Want some pizza?"

He nodded in gratitude, "Anything to get me off this hell on wheels."

"Think you can make it to the door all by yourself tough guy?"

"I'll drag myself across the floor with my teeth if I have to," he said with gritted teeth as he held onto the wall and started pulling himself forward.

Cecelia clapped for his determination, "That's the spirit."

Rizzo looked pained by his humiliation, "Could you, like, maybe fall down once or twice to make me feel better here."

Before the words had even completely left his mouth Cecelia had thrown herself backwards onto the ground leaving Rizzo to stare in shock as she did exactly as he asked.

The minute her tender flesh connected with the ground she emitted a loud yelp and rubbed at her soon to be sore backside, "Ouch! That hurt."

O.C. who'd been watching from the side couldn't contain his mirth at the shocked look on her face after hurting herself, "Well how did you think it would feel?"

"I didn't think it would hurt that bad," Cecelia exclaimed still staring at the ground as if it had betrayed her somehow. She looked up at Rizzo with newfound respect, "How did you handle doing that every other minute for the past two hours? I would've quit a long time ago."

"I didn't do it that much," Rizzo argued futilely as he signaled O.C. to help her back to her feet not trusting himself to lift anything while on these slippery demons known as roller skates, "And anyway I don't quit."

She half-skated half-limped past him on her roller skates, "You're a stronger man than I am Rizzo."

"You're not a man," O.C. felt compelled to point out still fighting off the last vestiges of his amusement over the whole fiasco.

"Details, details," Cecelia replied waving her hand breezily at his logic, "Rizzo, no matter how much I love you and I do, I'm never doing that for you again."

Rizzo gazed at her in wonder, "I didn't expect you to do it the first time."

"Yeah, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I really have got to learn to think things through before doing them because that hurt like a banshee."

"Let's get you both off the ice before anyone needs to head for the emergency room," O.C. stepped in grabbing each of them by the elbow and steering them toward safety.

Cecelia had barely grabbed another piece of pizza before her mother came hustling toward her, "Are you ok? I saw you fall down out there and it looked like it hurt."

Unconsciously she rubbed at her backside, "I'm fine, just had a bit of a mishap."

"It almost looked like you did it on purpose. One minute you were standing there just fine and then the next you were sitting on the ground."

Rizzo lowered his eyes abashed, Jack began to chuckle again, and Cecelia was torn between breaking into giggles with O.C. or blushing in embarrassment with poor Rizzo, "Um, it kind of was on purpose. I was just trying to make Rizzo feel better because he kept falling."

Patti clucked her tongue, "You're going to hurt yourself one of these days if you keep up that sort of behavior." Her mother rolled her eyes and looked at the two boys, "You can't imagine how much of a terror this girl was as a child. I remember when Mac broke his arm in third grade. I walked out the front door to find CeCe throwing herself out of a tree in an attempt to break her arm too. She didn't want him to feel alone in his pain and that's exactly what she told me after I yelled at her for trying to break her own arm. It's hard to be mad at your child when her motives were so noble. I used to be scared to death of what she was going to do next."

"It wasn't that bad," Cecelia replied in between bites of her pizza, "My mom is just a worrier. She's not happy unless she has something to worry about and I just happen to be her favorite concern."

"Well that's true," Patti agreed, "Your brother and sister aren't half as much work as you were and still are."

"Someone has to add some spice to your life."

"Is that what you've been doing all these years? I'll have to tell your father, he'll be thrilled that we've finally got you figured out."

"What do you have figured out Mrs. B?"

Patti's eyes lit up as Mac slid in to the chair beside her and wrapped a strong arm around her shoulder. She almost twittered in her excitement, "Cecelia just revealed that she's been adding spice to our life all these years and that's why she makes all that trouble."

"I don't know Mrs. B I think she just gets her high spirits from her beautiful mother," Mac flattered outrageously, "When are you going to leave Coach behind and run away with me?"

"Oh Mac!" Patti swatted him on the leg, "Don't talk like that young man. Not only am I old enough to be your mother, but I'm friends with your mother too."

"The tangled webs we weave," Robbie sighed appearing dejected in the face of her rejection, "If you ever change your mind, the offer is still on the table."

Cecelia crinkled her nose at the flirting between her best friend and her mother, "Ok guys, I'm about to be sick so cut the crap. If I never hear you say that to my mother again it will be too soon."

Patti's eyes were still sparkling from their exchange, but she stood up anyway, "I better leave you young kids alone and go find the people my own age."

Mac switched to drape an arm around Cecelia instead of her mother picking the rest of the pepperonis off her pizza and eating the ones she'd already removed, "Enjoying your party?"

"Best night of my life," she declared rapturously picking up another piece of pizza, "This pizza is so good."

O.C. watched wide-eyed as she placed the piece on her plate with relish licking the sauce off her fingers before picking it up to eat, "How many pieces have you eaten?"

Cecelia ticked off the slices on her finger before looking up at him, "Five I think, but I'm planning to eat at least three more."

"That's like a whole pizza!"

"Yeah I know," she shrugged her shoulders, "What? I have to keep up my strength if I'm going to make sure you guys are in shape by February."

"You're the most guy-like girl that I've ever met," O.C. marveled as he watched her demolish the slice in less than ten bites, "I'm not sure whether to be appalled or attracted."

Dave Silk caught the tail-end of the conversation as he approached the table for pizza and laughed, "I'm attracted."

"We know you are," Rizzo put in causing everyone to laugh at the obvious sentiment that Silky wasn't at all shy about showing on a daily basis.

"I can't help it if I find this young lady utterly fascinating," Silk protested making some serious mock goo-goo eyes Cecelia's way.

She fanned herself breathlessly with one delicate hand, "You flatter me kind sir, much more of that talk and I will positively expire from pleasure." Her Minnesotan accent ruined any chance she had of a convincing Southern accent.

"Cecelia," Rizzo begged, "Please don't encourage him. It's only going to get worse for all of us if he actually believes he has a chance with you."

"Who says he doesn't?" Cecelia asked feeling strangely affronted on his behalf. The implications of what she said sunk in quickly and Cecelia hurried to correct her statement before anyone got the wrong idea, "Ok I said he didn't, but that's only because I can't date my dad's players. Well I can, but not until after the Olympics, not that I expect him to wait that long just for a hypothetical chance with me. That came out wrong I wasn't saying that there's only a small chance I might end up liking him like that if he waited. Actually yes I did, but its not—Am I babbling? I feel like I'm babbling. I always do this when—"

Mac stemmed her flow of words the only way he knew how, by covering her mouth with one of his hands. "Hey CeCe," he said waiting for her to focus on his face, "Shut up."

She nodded without blinking apparently taking his words to heart because he could feel her stunned open mouth promptly close against the palm of his hand.

"Don't worry little one I'm not holding out any hope that we're secretly soul mates. I'm entirely too high-maintenance for you and that's the honest truth."

His version of the honest truth made her laugh, but there was one little thing she couldn't let pass by, "Little one? That has to be the worst thing you guys have called me yet. I thought sweet cheeks was bad, princess is just annoying, and yesterday when Pav called me Sparky that was bad but little one takes the cake."

"I was just trying it out," Silky reasoned, "We've got to find the perfect name to call you before we all have to go back to our real lives in February."

"How about Cecelia," she suggested with a wide hopeful smile, "I've always been partial to that one."

"Nah, it's no good. It just doesn't have that extra pizzazz you need."

"Ok, so I'm glad that's settled," Mac drawled out eager to change the subject to something that held a bit more appeal for him, "Is it time for cake yet?"

"This boy has a one track mind," Cecelia patted his flat stomach fondly.

Robbie started to nod in agreement but ended up shaking his head instead, "It's really more of a two track, wait, I'd say three track mind."

"Food and what else?"

"Well there's food, hockey, and you can probably guess the other thing," Mac sent a bawdy wink her way.

Cecelia looked at him in pretend bewilderment, "Whatever are you talking about? I have no idea what the third thing could be."

"Don't try that look-at-me-I'm-so-confused-and-innocent look with me babe, I know that you're just trying to embarrass me by making me say it out loud in front of you. It won't work. I'm way too smart for that trick."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're doing the confused innocent look again. I thought I told you to stop that."

CeCe scowled at him, "I hate that you've gotten smarter. You used to fall for that look every time."

"After twenty or so odd years together you have to learn something, right?"

"Right, which reminds me, Happy Anniversary Robbie."

He squeezed her small hand with his much larger one, "Happy Anniversary."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," O.C. put in, "Anniversary of what? I thought you two weren't together."

"Oh we're not," Cecelia explained, "It's the anniversary of our friendship. We've been celebrating it since our ten-year if I'm remembering correctly. We figured if we'd lasted that long it deserved to be acknowledged. His mom brought him to the hospital with her the day I was born so that's why we celebrate on my birthday. It was the first day we met."

"You two have such an odd relationship," O.C. observed with a strange mix of disbelief and more than a pinch of envy.

"It works for us, always has," She replied before linking her arm with Robbie's eager to find a subject that wouldn't shine the spotlight on herself, "Now what were you saying about cake?"

VV

The cake itself was a masterpiece in its own right. When Cecelia saw Mark and Jimmy carrying out the cake she just about died on the spot. It was a gorgeous cake decorated with clusters of white and dark pink flowers made of frosting. Apparently the boys had no idea that Mark and Jimmy were such talented cake bakers either because along with Cecelia they all stared in shock as the cake was set down on the table.

She walked a few steps closer and just looked at it. Every little flower bud was perfectly formed and looked surprisingly real. "You two made this?" Cecelia breathed out blown away for the hundredth time that night by the effort put forth on her behalf.

Jimmy nodded, but Mark interrupted before anything else could be said to correct her statement, "It was all Jimmy. I put on the sprinkles, but everything else was pure Jimmy."

His honesty and inability to take credit where he didn't feel he deserved it made her smile, "Well the sprinkles looks great."

Compulsively Cecelia reached out to give each a big hug. After hugging Jimmy she kept her arms loosely wrapped around his shoulders, but leaned back to ask, "Where did you learn to do all this? It's absolutely beautiful."

"My mom liked to decorate cakes for fun and I used to help her out in the kitchen when I had the time."

His words were detached and even slightly unemotional, but Cecelia caught the flash of heart-breakingly raw pain in his eyes at the mere mention of his mother. Her arms tightened around his neck enfolding him into a strong embrace. She lifted herself onto her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, "She would have been so proud of you. Thank you."

At her words his arms tightened around her waist, holding her close for a minute before releasing her, "You're welcome."

Cecelia pasted on a bright smile to deflect any remaining attention off Jimmy and picked up the waiting knife on the table, "Ok which one of you lucky boys wants to cut my cake?"

Buzzy grabbed the knife but poised hesitantly over the cake hating to ruin such a beautiful design. The first piece went to the birthday girl who laughed out loud again at the bright pink interior of the cake, "Is everything at this party pink?"

Jimmy shrugged, "We had strict orders from Bah and Rammer to make it pink so it would match the rest of the party. Strawberry seemed like the way to go."

"We couldn't let him bake a cake that would clash with our theme," Bah argued against all the boys who started up another round of heckling over the fresh proof of their obsessive attention to detail.

Rammer held up a hand to silence them, "Hey! It takes firm maneuvering, good people skills, great vision, and natural genius to pull off something this wonderful."

Herb looked at the two birthday planners, "If you two paid that much attention while you were on the ice we wouldn't even need to practice."

"Come on dad," Cecelia jumped in defending the work ethic of the team she was helping to build, "You have to admit they're getting better. Did you see that no one threw up after conditioning yesterday? That's improvement."

His mouth opened to speak and CeCe held up a finger to silence him, "I know, I know, improvement isn't perfection."

"So you have been listening all these years," Herb said looking pleased with revelation, "I thought you just tuned me out when I talk."

O.C. clapped him lightly on the back, "Herb, I hate to break it to you, but no one could tune out that yell. Trust me."

"Boy does he have your number daddy," Cecelia replied slapping Jack a high-five over his dead-on pronouncement.

"My own daughter has turned on me," he said dryly as everyone laughed, "Is that what feeding and clothing someone for twenty-two years gets you these days?"

"You should just be glad I waited this long to turn bad on you," she proclaimed with a wink, "You got twenty-two good years out of me first, you should be counting your blessings."

Herb looked at Patti, "Think she remembers that we control the will? If she keeps this up, she won't see a penny of our wealth when we die."

"That would be a much better threat if we actually had any wealth to speak of," CeCe observed laughing at the warning she'd been hearing almost daily since the time she turned three, "It just doesn't sound as good when the wealth you're bargaining with is an old station wagon and a closet full of ugly plaid pants."

"You don't like my plaid pants?"

"Dad, I don't think anyone likes your plaid pants."

"That's untrue Coach," Silky yelled from the back of the room, "I love your plaid pants."

Herb looked at Cecelia, "See? Someone likes my pants."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah ok dad, believe the boy who wouldn't be able to tell the truth if it came up and bit him in the ass. That's exactly who I'd trust too."

Silky shrugged from the chair he was perched on, "Not everybody can be perfect."

VV

"I thought I'd find you here."

Cecelia glanced up from where she'd been drawing designs in the sand with her bare toe to find Mac settling into the swing next to her casually kicking off his shoes and socks too.

"That's because I always come here to think," Cecelia argued purely for argument's sake, "It's not that hard to figure me out once you've got the pattern memorized."

The little playground down the street from both of their houses had been a witness to many of their late night talks. Mac always seemed to sense when to find her there, a fact that continued to amaze her even after all the years he'd been doing it. It was like he just knew. Cecelia had never bothered to ask how, it was enough that he did.

"So what are you thinking about tonight?" Mac asked idly pushing himself back and forth on the swing willing to wait for her reply all night if he had to. It was one of the things she loved about him, he never pushed for an answer, he just waited positive that when she had figured out just what she wanted to say she'd say it.

"It sounds stupid, but I don't even know. I guess I'm just thinking about everything."

"Like what?" he asked reaching out to give her back a little push with his hand to set her swing in motion. Mac watched her consider his question and smiled softly at the picture she made. Plain white t-shirt, jeans, bare feet, and her birthday crown still perched crookedly on her mussed dark hair. It was an everyday sight, but still one he never got tired of.

"Things are a little too perfect," Cecelia mused after a minute of contemplation, "Everything is working out with the team, they're the best group of boys I've ever met, and things are just too good. Even my dad is happy with the progress as much as he denies it. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? Something is going to ruin this for me and I hate just sitting around waiting for it."

"Maybe nothing's going to go wrong," Mac said back still pushing her back and forth lightly while she talked, "Maybe you're just worrying for nothing."

"You're probably right, but that doesn't make me stop thinking about it."

"Let's talk about something else then and distract you from your worries," he offered racking his brain for something that would take her mind off all the worries plaguing her mind, "It was a good birthday party tonight."

"It was the best birthday party," CeCe clarified with a smile before asking the next random question that popped into her head, "Hey Mac, did you ever think we'd still be friends at twenty-two?"

He didn't have to think about her question for more than a split second. Mac nodded, "Yeah, I did. Didn't you?"

"Most of the time yes, but there were a few moments when I doubted you'd live to see twenty-two at all much less that we'd still be speaking when it rolled around. Of all the people in the world you're the only one who makes me want to smash my own head into a brick wall in anger."

Mac laughed at her words, "They say there's a thin line between love and hate."

"Oh and how true that statement is," Cecelia agreed laughing with him, "I use to want to kill you in high school because you were always scaring off the boys I liked. Every time one of them tried to get within five feet of me, you were always right there making sure they knew that you didn't approve."

"I only did that to the people who weren't good enough for you anyway," Robbie said looking decidedly unashamed of his actions, "If they were actually worth your time they wouldn't have let a little thing like my disapproval get in their way."

CeCe flashed him a teasing smile, "I still blame you for making my high school existence dateless and lonely."

"Hey," he defended himself, "There were a few guys who were willing to defy me in order to date you. It was you who never stayed with them for longer than a date or two."

"Because you hated them all!" she cried, "You'd pout and whine so much that eventually I had to get rid of them in order to stay sane."

"Well you didn't have to. Most girls ignore what their friends think about their boyfriends. You could've kept dating them, I probably would've gotten over it after I got used to the idea."

"Now you tell me," Cecelia joked before explaining, "I always cared more for you. That's why I dumped them. I'd rather have our friendship than a plethora of dates with random boys that don't mean even half as much to me. But now that we're on the subject of dates, should we discuss all the air-headed girls you like to hang out with."

"They're nice," Robbie said feeling a little dizzy by her sudden turnabout attack.

"Nice to make out with maybe," she shook her head at his typically boyish behavior concerning the girls in his life, "I actually had a reason to hate the girls you dated. They were a blemish on the female race. It almost made me sick to watch them prance around always acting helpless and stupid so you'd notice them. For being my best friend, you sure have awful taste about the rest of the girls you include in your life."

"Ok, I hated your boyfriends and you hated my girlfriends. I'd say that makes us even, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," CeCe catapulted and once again redirected the conversation with an off-topic inquiry, "Do you think O.C. was right and we do have an odd relationship?"

Mac actually took the time to contemplate her question instead of shooting off a snappy reply right away, "We probably do. I haven't ever met anyone I like in the same way I like you."

"Really? And how is that?"

"Unconditionally," he replied after a moment spent searching for the right word, "That's how I like you. We fight a lot, mostly because you're so damn moody and I'm so damn stubborn, but I never stop liking. You know how sometimes when you're fighting with someone; you actually don't like them for a while because you're that mad? Well that never happens with you."

"I feel that way about you too," Cecelia grinned mischievously at him, "I like that we can yell and scream at each other like that. At least we always know how the other feels."

Mac grinned back while she started laughing again for no reason, "What?"

CeCe shook her head while trying to stop the fit of giggles that she'd fallen prey to, "I just realized that Jack was completely right. We do have the oddest relationship ever."

"I like it though."

"Yeah?" she questioned her crown tipping even more haphazardly on her head as her head tilted to look at him, "Me too."

Mac reached out to adjust the angle of her tiara so it wasn't crooked, "Happy Birthday babe. Here's to fifty more."

"Let's make it sixty," Cecelia said reaching out across the distance between their swings to catch his hand in hers. Her gaze drifted his way and she felt her heart give a little jerk as he grinned directly at her, a dimple creasing his cheek above his upturned lips. She opened her mouth with the intention of saying something silly, but found that the words stalled in her throat. His dimple disappeared as the mirth faded from his face. A calloused thumb swept across the back of her knuckles and her breath caught again at the unexpected intimacy of the moment.

After one more pass of his thumb Mac tugged gently on CeCe's hand pulling her to her feet, "We should get you home. Had a big day today, you must be tired."

They started their walk home and she fought the off kilter feeling that had taken hold in the pit of her stomach. She breathed a sigh of relief as the routine normalcy of their walk eventually calmed the swirl of unfamiliar emotion.

They reached her front steps within minutes. Side-by-side they walked up the few short steps to her front door and there they paused as they had a million other times before to say goodbye.

Robbie pulled her into his side for a moment, his head dropping down to hover in the space over her shoulder and to the right of her ear. His whispered goodbye skirted across the sensitive skin at the base of her neck and her answering shiver was her only true response. At the feel of her swaying closer, Robbie's head turned a fraction of an inch more and his lips pressed ever so gently against the side of her neck. Her fingers reflexively gripped his tighter and without thought she rose up onto the balls of her feet. The tiny movement was enough to freeze Robbie in his tracks. In what felt like eternity but was probably only the barest of seconds, he untangled his fingers from hers and eased backward. His lips arched into an imitation of a smile before his feet began carrying him down the stairs and away from her.

He was halfway down the sidewalk before Cecelia had the presence of mind to stop gaping after him like a demented fish and open the door that had previously been the only thing holding her up.

The only thought that managed to hold solidly in her mind was that his goodbye had been nothing like their other goodbyes.


	6. The Night Of The GingerAle Fiasco

"We're going to Norway. Lovely, lovely, Norway," Cecelia sing-songed quietly down the airplane's narrow aisles in search of a flight attendant who could get her some ginger-ale to calm her jumpy stomach preferably sometime before they landed the plane on foreign soil.

It was late on board the flight, last time she'd checked her watch it been just after two o'clock in the morning Minnesota time, and the boys were all sleeping peacefully in their chairs. Cecelia giggled as she passed by the row being shared by O.C., Mac, Silky, and Rammer. O.C. was at the end of the row and every boy after him had their head resting on the shoulder to the right of him. Rammer was leaning on Silk, Silky was leaning on Mac, and Mac bless his soul was leaning on O.C. who had his head propped up with his arm and a pillow. It was a sight to behold. Four big tough hockey players snuggled up together underneath one long blanket.

She wandered a little further down the aisle about to give up on the ginger-ale and go purify her own pee for a makeshift beverage since apparently after midnight flight attendants decided it was no longer necessary to see to the needs of the people on the flight.

Damn flight attendants

"Cecelia."

Honestly had they jumped ship, or plane as it were, sometime between the dinner meal and now? Where the hell could they all be? There wasn't enough room on this damn thing to hide for long and yet they'd been eluding her for well over fifteen minutes now.

A hand reached out to grab her wrist, "Cecelia."

"What the hell?" she yelled in surprise before quieting instantly as the sound of sleepy shuffling rustled through the previously dead silent plane. "I mean what the hell?" Cecelia whispered belatedly looking into a familiar pair of blue eyes, "Trying to give me a heart attack there Johnson or is this how you treat all the ladies these days?"

"You didn't hear me the first six times I tried to get your attention. What's got you so hot and bothered?"

Her irritated glare scanned across the plane cabin again, "I was a bit distracted. I'm on the hunt for a flight attendant and some ginger-ale."

"I just saw one heading that way," Mark pointed behind him, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

"Aren't you?"

Cecelia smiled at his counter, "Yes, but I'm not the one who has to practice the minute we touch down in the motherland. I have the luxury of being able to take a nap. It's just one of the many perks to being the only girl on the trip."

"The motherland?"

A hand flew to her chest and she let out an exaggerated gasp, "Are you telling me you're not Scandinavian?"

"No, you are?"

"Almost ninety-nine percent of people in Minnesota are Scandinavian," Cecelia explained before teasing him, "I thought we had a future together Mark, but now that I've discovered such a shocking fact about you, I'm not so sure we're compatible."

He shrugged, "It must be a Wisconsin thing. We're all Dutch and German."

"Oh well, I forgive you because Wisconsin is the land of cheese and cheese means cheese curds. I love cheese curds."

"Have you actually had cheese curds in Wisconsin?" Mark questioned struggling to keep up with her train of thought. Apparently her mind worked like no other's because following her sentences took some serious mental thought. She jumped from subject to subject without a break in the middle and just expected you to keep up.

"When I was at school in Duluth, a bunch of the girls from the team and I would drive across the bridge and eat cheese curds at this little run down bar in Superior. Best cheese curds I've ever had. They were incredible."

"You never cease to amaze me."

"It's good for you, keeps you on your toes."

She stood up again stretching her arms overhead starting to feel the effects of sitting in an airplane seat for such a long span of time. Mark's eyes watched her just long enough for Cecelia to begin feeling unnerved by his attention, "What? Can you see my underwear or something?"

He choked on whatever he'd been about to say sending himself into a sputtering fit of coughs, "No, I was just—you looked—never mind, it doesn't matter anymore. Should we go track down those wily flight attendants now and get you something to drink?"

Cecelia didn't push for a more detailed explanation choosing instead to do what she always did when things got too intense. She ignored it and waited for it to go away. "Hopefully you'll have better luck than I've had. Those women have been hiding from me on purpose, I can feel it."

Mark grabbed CeCe's hand and pulled her down the aisle behind him in search of the elusive ginger-ale suppliers. She absent-mindedly hummed a bit of the theme song from her dad's favorite old spy movie as they crept along trying their hardest to be quiet and not wake any of the passengers they passed by.

Ten minutes later Mark caught a flash of blonde hair and tugged her even faster in pursuit. The poor flight attendant looked ready to pass out from the shock of two passengers jumping her in the darkened aisle while everyone on board was supposed to be asleep.

"I'm sorry to scare you like that," Mark began smoothly throwing her an I'm-so-cute-you-have-to-forgive-me look, "My friend is desperate for some ginger-ale and I'd love you forever if you could scrounge us up some."

The blonde's surprise faded away under his attention and Cecelia almost gagged when she reached over to squeeze his bicep and said in the most annoyingly nasal voice Cecelia had ever heard, "Anything for you handsome."

Mark lost some major brownie points with CeCe when instead of rolling his eyes behind the blonde's back as Mac would have done he smiled back at the woman looking oddly pleased by the attention.

A few long minutes later, Cecelia had a can of ginger-ale resting in her hand and they were bidding goodnight to the mind-bogglingly dull flight attendant who'd had the audacity to actually try and slip Mark her phone number all the while flipping her teased blonde hair all over the place. It was amazing that no one's eyes had been poked out by the hair-sprayed mane of badly dyed hair flying this way and that way with no regard for the innocent bystanders.

Her annoyance faded almost as quickly as it had come when the woman was finally out of view leaving Mark and Cecelia alone again in the dark. "Thanks for getting me this," she held up the can in gratitude, "I was about to completely give up hope before you came along."

"Anytime CeCe," Mark said stepping closer to her in the darkened aisle, "So are you having fun helping out with the team?"

As much as she liked Mark the sudden attention made her a bit nervous, "Um, yeah it's been a blast. You guys are all great and spending time with my dad is a plus I guess. Are you, uh, having fun playing on the team?"

While she'd been rambling on in response to his question, he'd taken the opportunity to take yet another step that brought his body almost flush with hers, "Oh I'm having a great time."

"Good," Cecelia squeaked fighting the urge to step back, "I'm really glad you're enjoying yourself."

"Do you want to know something?"

His features were shadowy in the dim light. All she could see were his eyes boring into hers and she shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny, "Maybe?"

"I like you or at least I could if I let myself."

"I like you too." Red heat flushed her cheeks as her words came out at a decibel that could only be described as a squeak.

Mark's lips quirked up at the sounds that she was trying to pass off as conversation. "But the thing is you don't. At least not as anything more than a friend."

This discussion had just taken a turn for the bizarre and CeCe wasn't exactly sure how she was supposed to be handling this particular situation. "Friends are good," she informed him, "I like having friends."

"Don't worry CeCe, this isn't going to turn into an impassioned speech about how much I love you and can't picture my life without you. I like you, you're an amazing girl and if I thought for even a second that I could compete with the other man in your life maybe things would be different."

Her head slowly vacillated from side to side as she tried to understand everything Mark was saying. One thing finally stuck out in her mind, "What other man? I'm not even dating anyone."

"Just because you're not dating someone doesn't mean you aren't involved with someone."

That logic only served to confuse her even further. She fought the urge to reach up and press a cool hand to his forehead sure that this conversation was a result of a fever-induced delirium.

Before Cecelia could say anything in return Mark swooped down and pressed his lips to hers. The sensation of his lips on hers was mildly pleasant but no fireworks went off in her head. In an effort to awaken the right sensations she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling their bodies together while his hands rested on her waist.

Cecelia decided mid-kiss that it probably wasn't a good sign if she was running over plays for the Norway game in her head when she was supposed to be consumed by passion for Mark. Before she could pull back and put an end to their farce of an embrace, the sound of a throat being cleared broke into the absurd moment halting their painfully awkward experiment.

Cecelia was the first to pull back relieved that the interruption had stilled their laborious effort to feel something, anything really, but when she turned her head to the side, it was to be met with the sight of Verchota and Pav looking sleep-rumpled but completely aware of what they'd just happened to walk into. Not exactly who she'd been hoping to see although it could have been worse, a lot worse. It could have been Buzzy, or even Rammer, or the worst of all it could have been Mac.

"This isn't what it looks like," she hastened to tell them, jumping away from Mark as if he were a stranger who'd accosted her on the street not someone she'd been willingly kissing only seconds before.

"It's really none of our business," Pav held up his hands backing away from them slowly, "Just forget we were ever here."

Verchota nodded his agreement without meeting their eyes, "We didn't see anything unless you wanted us to."

Wherever the boys had been intending to go was forgotten in their rush to escape the scene they'd accidentally come across.

"Oh no," Cecelia moaned flinching away from Mark when he tried to put an arm around her, "Don't you understand what this means?"

"We kissed. What's there to understand about that?"

She shook her head, "There is so much more to it than that. I'm not supposed to date my dad's players under any circumstances especially under these!"

"Well we weren't dating, we were kissing."

"I'm pretty sure he's not going to see the distinction like you do."

Mark shrugged, "Ok so we don't tell anyone. It doesn't have to become a big thing. We kissed, big deal. People have kissed before without it ruining their life you know."

"Trust me I'm not one of those people," Cecelia replied fighting the frantic need to flee his presence and the scene of their crime, "Whenever I do anything stupid I get caught. I never get away with things. I never have and I never will. This is not as easy as you seem to think it is."

"What exactly is so hard about this? I only kissed you to prove a point. It's not like I asked you to go steady."

"Exactly what point were you trying to prove?"

"I'm not really sure," Mark admitted looking at her with a rueful grin, "That you weren't interested in me, I guess, although why I thought that was a good idea is completely beyond me."

Cecelia nodded after a minute. There should have been a spark; he was attractive, sweet, and a great hockey player, but when their lips met nothing happened. Zilch. Nada. No zing whatsoever. Not even a teeny tiny tingle.

"You're right," she whispered finally after spending another minute trying desperately to muster up even one ounce of any real feeling for him beside friendship.

"Why are you whispering?" he whispered back looking confused by the sudden change in her tone of voice.

"I don't know," her voice still stayed quiet as she glanced around checking the area for stray hockey players just waiting to bust in on them, "This just seems like the kind of conversation we don't need everyone overhearing."

His smile caused a relieved smile to fall into place on her face as well, "Let's just forget this ever happened. We'll chalk it up to some strange nighttime on a plane going to Europe phenomenon induced by the crazy need for ginger-ale."

"Brilliant," he agreed offering her his arm, "Shall I escort you back to your seat?"

"Why I'd be delighted kind sir."

"So, friends?" Mark asked after returning her safely to a window seat on the other side of a sleeping Buzz and Jannie who were both curled up in their seats looking dead to the world.

Cecelia smiled at him again; glad that her mistake had happened with someone who made her feel so at ease about it, "Friends."

"I'll see you when we land CeCe," Mark said softly making sure she was comfortable in her seat before turning to leave, "Sorry about all of the craziness tonight."

Cecelia smiled at him again from beneath the big blanket she pulled up around herself. Before he left she asked him again the question that had been plaguing her since the beginning of their talk. "Who do you think I'm involved with?"

His gaze turned frightfully perceptive again, "I think we both know the answer to that."

VV

"How about them North Stars O.C.?" Steve Janaszak, the backup goalie, needled as the Minnesota team decisively crushed O.C.'s famed New York Rangers in a 5-1 landslide. It left little room for Jack's usual argument of everyone has an off night.

"Shut up Jannie," O.C. replied throwing a handful of popcorn at him, "One game means squat in hockey. They're the better team, but tonight just wasn't their night."

Jannie had to shake his head in amazement, apparently even such a crushing defeat couldn't throw O.C. off his game as the staunchest supporter of the New York team, "Yeah Jack, but when you count all the other times the North Stars have killed them it starts to add up, don't you think Jimmy?"

Jim Craig shrugged his broad shoulders, "Sorry Jack. I'm going to have to side with the enemy on this one, the North Stars are the better team this year."

"Does loyalty means nothing to you?" Jack bemoaned giving his longtime friend a pained expression, "We grow up together and this is what you do to me? Forsake our Rangers to become a Minnesota-loving traitor?"

Buzz and Mac arrived just in time to catch Jack's complaint. "Here have a beer," Mac called tossing him one of the cold bottles he was holding, "Maybe that will lessen the pain of betrayal."

The other boys each grabbed a beer before settling back down to watch the second NHL games being shown that night in their hotel room. Watching TV in Norwegian had been fun for, oh, five minutes or so before the boys were desperate for anything spoken in complete English. Coming across the hockey games had been manna from heaven for the boys.

A knock sounded on the door followed by Pav popping his curly-haired dark head through the open doorway, 'You got room for two more?"

"Pull up some floor," Jimmy invited offering them a beverage as they passed by.

"Can you believe practice today?" Verchota asked rubbing his sore shoulder, "We're playing our first official game tomorrow against the Norwegian National team and Herb still doesn't let up on us. How are we supposed to play if we're too sore to move?"

"The man is insane," O.C. voiced from the bed, "He makes no sense whatsoever. It's like there's something always missing for him. We never give him quite what he's looking for so he just keeps pushing in an attempt to find it."

"Herb has his reasons," Jimmy argued tearing his eyes off the pre-game show long enough to state his opinion.

"Oh yeah, what are they?"

"I said he had reasons not that I knew what they are."

Jack just scowled in the face of Jimmy's logic, "The only good thing about Herb is Cecelia. That girl is a total riot. Did you see her fall down the escalator earlier? Hilarious."

"At least she didn't fall down the whole thing, just those last few feet" Mac replied, "The girl is a klutz. It's still a mystery to me how she manages to be so athletic when something simple like riding an escalator causes her so much trouble."

"It's a mystery to us all," Buzz held up his beer in salute to their absent friend, "You've got to love her though."

"Speaking of Cecelia, what's up with her and Mark?" Jannie asked sitting up a little straighter as if he'd just remembered something important.

All the boys shrugged. "Nothing that I know of," Buzz said, "And usually she tells me about things like that, something about getting a guy's opinion on the subject. Why? Do you know something we don't?"

"Well I don't know," he began, "I woke up on the plane last night and they were whispering about something. It was kind of strange."

"You're probably just reading too much into it. It's just two people hanging out," Robbie put in hiding his relief that Jannie's suspicions weren't founded on finding them locked together in a supply closet groping each other or something equally disturbing.

"They looked pretty friendly," Jannie explained hesitantly, "Plus Cecelia was gone with him for a long time before they came back."

Robbie remained steadfast in his belief that somehow it was all just one big misunderstanding even though everyone else, including Buzz, looked like they were being brought around to Jannie's line of thinking.

"They're friends. Being friendly only makes sense," He grasped for any straws available to the searching fingers of his mind. For whatever reason every time Cecelia had a boyfriend they ended up fighting mercilessly and he wasn't eager to begin the vicious cycle again especially in the middle of training for the Olympics. It was more stress than he really wanted to handle at the moment. Everything would be so much better if this was all one big mistake that was being made bigger than it was by a bunch of boys with too much time on their hands.

Pav and Verchota exchanged a long look before Verchota spoke up, "Um, I don't think so. Pav and I saw them kissing on the plane."

"So what? She's affectionate with everybody, that's just the way Cecelia is."

"This wasn't the kind of kiss you give a friend," Pav said and Verchota muttered behind him, "At least not any of my friends." Both boys avoided making eye contact with Mac as they refuted his arguments.

"Are you all right Mac?" O.C. asked leaning over to get a better look at him, "You look a little green around the gills." A light dawned in his eyes, "You're not jealous of Mark are you?"

Robbie started at the absurd suggestion. "Fuck no," he proclaimed shaking his head with certainty, "It's just a little weird to think of CeCe with anyone. It's like imagining your sister making out with someone, not a picture you want in your head."

The rest of the guys seemed to accept his explanation, moving onto a discussion of the game being played leaving Mac alone with his thoughts. He wasn't jealous was he?

Annoyed by the plaguing thoughts that wouldn't leave no matter how hard he tried to shake them off, Robbie hopped up off the floor, "I'm going to go grab some more ice. Does anyone want anything while I'm up?"

Jimmy dug in his pants pocket and flicked a few quarters his way, "Get me something chocolate from the machine. I don't care what it is as long as there's a substantial amount of chocolate and sugar in it."

"Grab me some Skittles," Buzz requested not even bothering to turn his head away from the game on TV.

The ice machine and candy machine were located down the hallway in a small alcove off to the side of the main corridor. He was staring at the candy machine trying to decide which candy bar had the most chocolate in it when he heard a door squeak open slowly down the hallway. As he watched from his hidden vantage point, Cecelia peeped her head out of the doorway scanning the hallway for signs of people before darting out wearing only a towel to knock on the room next door to hers. The door she knocked on swung open to reveal Mark Johnson dressed only in a pair of shorts and nothing else.

Mark leaned on the doorjamb as Cecelia said something to him causing him to chuckle. She said something else and he slipped his arm around her shoulders pulling her into the darkness of his room with another laugh.

Of all the things Mac had been expecting to see, a tryst between Mark and Cecelia had been way at the bottom of the list right underneath hell freezing over, but apparently that's just what he'd witnessed. There was no other explanation for Cecelia running into Mark's arms wearing only a towel. Mac fought to keep from imagining what they were doing at that very moment inside the hotel room. The towel had probably long been disposed of and— this was definitely not the kind of thinking that was going to help him remain calm for long.

Mark was a great guy and a hell of a hockey player, but he was completely wrong for Cecelia. Mark wouldn't be able to handle her strong personality. CeCe would steamroll over him in five seconds flat if he gave her the opportunity. She needed someone who was happy just being with her, someone who understood the occasionally frequent mood swings, someone who understood how much drive and determination she hid in that little body, someone who wouldn't let her run all over them. Cecelia needed someone who could see past the beaming smiles and flippant attitude to who she truly was, a strong woman who occasionally got scared and needed someone to take care of her every now and then even if she liked to deny it.

Did Mark really think he could do all that?

Mac was positive that he couldn't and that was the only reason that the thought of them together in bed, together in a relationship, together in any capacity whatsoever upset him to the degree it did. It wasn't jealousy like O.C. so often liked to claim, it was just plain good sense. She was his best friend and he didn't want her getting involved with someone who was ultimately going to hurt her in the end. That was all there was to it. He'd feel the same way if Buzzy was the one who was going to get hurt. That's just what friends did.

VV

"What the hell are you doing Johnson?" Cecelia screamed at the TV throwing her box of Kleenexes across the room in a spurt of indignant anger, "Pass the damn puck! Haven't you paid attention to anything these past few months?"

Mark apparently wasn't picking up her mental vibes because he held onto the puck and only seconds later got leveled by the Norwegian enforcer. Cecelia groaned loudly as the American team skated around the rink like chickens with their heads cut off. Their passing was crap, their defense was sorely lacking, don't even get her started on their offense, and she was just glad they'd managed to stay neck and neck with the team that was supposed to be an easy win.

It was really pissing her off to be stuck in bed in a foreign hotel room while her team was only two miles away getting their asses handed to them on a silver Norwegian platter.

The morning had dawned bright and early to find Cecelia stuffed up, sneezing, and hacking like she was going to cough up a lung. Doc had taken one look at her and ordered her back to bed to rest and drink lots of liquids and if that wasn't enough he'd also forbidden her to get within twenty feet of the team in order to keep them all in healthy playing shape.

So here she was in lying in bed like a good little girl watching the game on a little television with commentary being done by two old Norwegian men. As she watched the camera zoomed in on Buzzy who was getting slammed into the wall by number fifty-three on the Norwegian team.

"En hardt rammet inn i mur."

"You can say that again," Cecelia murmured in response to the Norwegian words not particularly sure what was being said, but positive that she agreed.

"Come on Mac," she whispered watching him elude the defensemen gunning for him, "Just a little further, you can do it. NO! NO! NO! What are you doing? Get your head out of your ass and pay attention! You know better than that!"

"Det hockey rynke er stjalet fra amerikaneren spilleren."

Cecelia looked around for something else to throw, but realized that all of her none breakable items were already lying in a heap across the room where she'd been chucking them throughout the game. Her nose was starting to run something fierce and that box of Kleenexes on the floor out of her reach was seriously starting to mock her.

The camera returned to the American player's box and scanned over the line of players pausing when it came to Silky and Verchota. Cecelia watched interestedly as they showed the two boys talking amongst themselves and pointing into the bleachers across from them. When the camera panned over to show what held the two boys enthralled Cecelia barely managed to stifle the swear words that leapt into her mouth as a group of good-looking blonde Norwegian girls filled the television screen.

"Amerikaneren gutter ha blitt ser nordmannen pikene det hele lek."

"They're checking out girls," she breathed out slamming her fist into the bed, "They're actually checking our girls in the middle of a game. Un-fucking-believable, dad is going to murder them."

The buzzer rang signaling the end of the game with a dismal 3-3 tie being shown on the scoreboard, Cecelia knew her dad was bound to be pissed off both at their effort on the ice and their extracurricular activities while on the bench. The Norwegian commentary continued through the team hand-shaking and it was the surprise in the voice of one of the commentators that caused Cecelia to look back up at the screen. The camera was focused on the door leading to the American locker rooms where Coach Patrick was blocking the doorway holding a whistle. Even on the tiny screen with grainy reception CeCe could see the collective shock of the whole team.

"That's what you get," Cecelia muttered feeling decidedly unsympathetic after their less-than-inspired play and a day spent blowing her nose every five seconds.

Herb walked onto the ice clearly shouting something and the Norwegian commentators were translating his words for the TV audience, but the Norwegian words didn't help Cecelia at all.

"Hvis du ikke gjor det vil gjerne arbeide under lek, vi vil arebeide etter."

A few more words were exchanged between Herb and the players before Coach Patrick blew the whistle and they were off and running skating herbies across the ice. When they finished their first run, Herb said something else that the sport commentator related to his audience, "Du kan ikke vaere vanlig fordi den vanlige mannen gar ingensteds. Du har a bli uvanlig."

"You tell them dad," Cecelia encouraged from her spot on the bed squinting her eyes shut sending him messages of support hoping that some form of father-daughter ESP would kick in after awhile.

Apparently the network decided to cut off the footage of the "spro amerikaneren lag" because the screen switched from the team running herbies to a Norwegian infomercial about a machine that if she was interpreting their words correctly helped you achieve rock-hard abs in only five minutes a day.

VV

A/N: I want to clarify that I'm not guaranteeing the complete correctness of any of the Norwegian phrases I included in this chapter. I used an online translator so it could be sort of a silly translation. I apologize to any of you who actually speak Norwegian and are going to be horrified by the potentially bad grammar. And just to help you out I'll put down the meanings of every phrase I included.

En hardt rammet inn i mur: A hard hit into the wall

Det hockey rynke er stjalet fra amerikaneren spilleren: the hockey puck is stolen from the American skater/player

Amerikaneren gutter ha blitt ser nordmannen pikene det hele lek: The American boys have been looking at the Norwegian girls the whole game.

Hvis du ikke gjor det vil gjerne arbeide under lek, vi vil arebeide etter: A loose translation of the you don't want to work during the game? Fine, we'll work now line from the movie.

Du kan ikke vaere vanlig fordi den vanlige mannen gar ingensteds. Du har a bli uvanlig: You can't be common because the common man goes nowhere. You have to be uncommon.

spro amerikaneren lag: crazy American team


	7. An Itsy Bitsy Fight Between Friends

Cecelia glanced up from where she was wrapping Buzzy's ankle to see Mark Johnson hovering beside her left shoulder. "I'll be right with you Mark," she said calmly keeping her eyes focused on Buzz watching for any flicker of knowledge concerning the ginger-ale fiasco as she was now referring to it. His dark eyes didn't so much as blink leaving Cecelia feeling relatively safe that he had no idea what had happened on the plane to Norway. She shifted her attention back to Mark, "What can I do for you today?"

He flopped down on a chair beside her to wait his turn, "Doc said I should have my wrist wrapped and he said you're the girl to see."

"You've come to the right place," she indicated the yards of Ace bandages filling the basket at her feet.

Cecelia gave Buzzy's ankle wrap one last critical look-over and a tug before patting his leg, "I think that ought to do it. Try not to put too much pressure on it today if you can."

"Thanks CeCe," Buzz smiled hopping off the table, "I feel good as new."

"But you're not," she scolded like a mother-hen, "Don't try anything fancy for a few days. Just let it rest or you'll hurt it even worse, and then I'll have to kick you in the shins just for being stupid."

"Yes ma'am."

Cecelia swatted at him for the cheeky retort before shooing him out of her makeshift office. She picked up another roll of Ace bandages to start wrapping Mark's wrist but instead she felt a swift tug on her arm that sent her tumbling into his lap.

"Just where I want you," Mark let out a fake sigh of contentment keeping his arms wrapped firmly around her waist.

"I hate to say it," CeCe shot back with a roll of her eyes, "Still no zing."

"We'll find it someday," he teased holding her hips still when she would have wiggled her way off his lap, "You might as well stay here. It'll be easier to wrap my wrist if you're close by."

"I could be close without sitting on your lap," she pointed out not bothering to hide her amusement from him.

"Yeah, but I like it better when you do."

"For being just friends, you sure do like to flirt."

Mark grinned at her, "I figured we had so much fun with it before the whole Norway debacle that we should just stick with our original behavior minus all that romantic nonsense."

"I love you more and more each day," Cecelia declared glad that he seemed unaffected by the change in their circumstances, "I really thought this was going to be weird, but you've made it ten times better."

"There's no need for it to be weird. We kissed, didn't like it, and now we're back to being just friends. If you look at it this way we were friends for four months and more than friends for about three minutes. I think the friend side deserves to win out."

"You're a great guy Mark."

His pleasure at her words was easy to read in his expression, "You're not so bad yourself."

"I think you're about done," she said examining her handiwork with the wrap, "That should hold for practice at least. Come find me if you need it rewrapped."

The twinkle in her eyes and the tightening of his arms around her waist should have tipped Cecelia off to the fact that he was up to no good, but somehow she missed it until it was too late. The next thing she knew Mark had kicked off with his feet sending the office chair swiveling around in a circle. He spun them faster and faster until Cecelia had her head buried in his shoulder while shrieking with laughter at his antics.

Mark was still laughing at her girlish screams when he finally dragged his foot to slow their spinning. Cecelia finally looked up grinning, but smacked him in the arm anyway, "I hate you."

"Nah, you love me."

"Am I interrupting something?" a sardonic voice asked from the doorway surprising both Cecelia and Mark.

Cecelia hopped up off his lap and smiled at Robbie who was leaning on the door frame staring at them, "No. I was just wrapping Mark's wrist before practice."

"Yeah that's what it looked like from here too," Mac dryly replied not returning CeCe's smile, "Doc sent me up here to get ice for my leg."

During their mini-exchange Mark had stood up and sidled toward the door. He paused just inside the doorway and looked back at Cecelia, "I'll see you later CeCe, thanks for wrapping my hand."

"No problem Mark, just try to avoid smashing it up so much today."

Robbie waited until Mark had disappeared from view to say anything, "So you and Mark, huh?"

Cecelia tried to appear nonchalant, "Mark and I, what?"

"You two are acting pretty close lately, I was just wondering what was going on."

"Nothing's going on," she said turning to fill up a bag with ice for Mac, "We're just friends, that's all. It's not a big deal."

"Oh, I didn't know you were in the habit of kissing all your friends these days," Mac replied in a snide tone purposefully being rude to get a rise out of her, "Should've told me so I could take advantage of that."

"And I didn't know you were in the habit of being rude. Should've told me that so I could avoid you," Cecelia shot back in anger straightening up to glare at him, "I don't know what you're talking about anyway."

"Pav and Verchota told us about what happened on the plane. Don't you just hate when people see things they're not supposed to?"

She took a deep breath to calm down before answering, hoping to persuade him to just listen to her for a minute instead of going postal as was his usual route when faced with something he didn't like. This was turning into a repeat of their high school years when Robbie would get moody and angry every time she brought a boy around. Her campaign wouldn't be helped at all by flying off the handle prematurely, "It's not what they thought it was."

"You and Johnson weren't kissing?"

"Well yes we were, but you're getting the wrong idea about everything."

Mac just looked at her for a long moment, "So how long have you two been sleeping together?"

"What?" Cecelia cried shocked and more than a little annoyed that he would even ask such an inane question. What kind of person did he think she was? Mac was being extraordinarily obtuse if he actually thought she'd sleep with someone without even being in something that at least resembled a committed relationship first.

"It's pretty obvious that you two are having sex. You don't have to deny it. I saw it with my own eyes."

She couldn't fight her laughter over his words for long. Of all the things he could have said she hadn't been expecting that. "How could you have possibly seen Mark and I having sex?"

"I saw you at the hotel. You ran over to his room in your towel and then didn't come out again. That was a pretty easy connection to make even for me CeCe."

Cecelia thought back to their Norway trip and laughed out loud again. Mac must've seen her go over to use Mark's shower because hers hadn't been working right. The water pressure had been next to nothing and the hot water had been nonexistent. Of course she hadn't discovered those problems until after she'd already stripped down to her underwear. Desperate for a shower after a long day in a grimy room helping her dad get ready for the game Cecelia had decided to impose on poor Mark and use his shower while hers was on the fritz since his was the closest room to hers.

How had Mac seen her do that in the first place? She'd looked out in the hallway first not wanting anyone to see her and get the wrong idea about what was happening, but apparently she hadn't looked hard enough.

"Mac," she started, "That wasn't what it looked like either. I just needed to use—"

"Don't lie about it!" he exploded at her, "I don't lie to you so don't lie to me."

Any remaining composed feelings flew out the window at his unfounded accusation. Why was he being like this? He wasn't even allowing her to explain. "What does it matter to what I do?" Cecelia screamed back her anger getting the best of her, "You're my best friend Mac, but you're not my keeper. I'll do whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want to do it and you can't stop me!"

"Oh that's mature," Mac shouted back just growing angrier in the face of her irritation.

Her eyes flashed in indignant rage, "Like you're any better! Don't forget that I've known you almost as long as you've known yourself! I know that you have a habit of jumping to conclusions with little or no basis in fact! This is just one more example."

"I'm pretty sure seeing something with your own eyes constitutes fact CeCe!"

"Not if you're misinterpreting what you see!"

"How do you misinterpret that?"

Cecelia reared back again ready to blast him, "I don't know, but obviously you did! Don't ask me to understand your thought process, that's a full time job in and of itself!"

"You're saying you didn't sleep with Mark?" Robbie asked stepping closer and dropping his voice to a dangerously low tone, "That's all I want to know."

A yes was seconds from slipping out of her mouth before some little demon in Cecelia's mind caused her to disagree with him out of spite, "No."

"So you did sleep with Mark!" he crowed in triumph, "I knew it!"

"You're such a bastard Robbie!" her voice shrieked out unnaturally high, "I cannot believe you came barging in here accusing me of being a slutty whore who'll sleep with anyone after knowing them for two days."

"It was more than two days," he conceded. His brain finally caught up with the rest of her rant and he hastened to correct her on one thing, "I never said you were slutty or a whore."

His words came too late because she was in no mood to listen to retractions or corrections, "I've said it before and I'll say it again. You aren't in charge of me. You can't stop me from doing anything even if I decide to sleep my way through the entire team it's absolutely no concern of yours!"

"And you are just stubborn enough to do it!" His eyes lit up at his perceived direct hit.

"UGH!" she screamed fighting the impulse to inflict bodily damage on him, "You're such a pig!"

Robbie just shrugged looking unconcerned by her current opinion of him. His nonchalance only served to infuriate her further.

"Get out!" Cecelia cried going to hold the door open. For a moment Mac looked indecisive, but the moment passed and with his head held high he started for the door.

As he walked by her, she smiled in icy sweetness, "Break a leg darling."

Mac passed by and glared at her, "Go screw someone else sweetie."

Cecelia slammed the door shut barely missing him in her rage. The anger coursing through her blood kept her adrenaline pumping for a few seconds before the reality of what had just happened began to sink in.

Her knees started to shake as the argument replayed through her mind over and over again like a bad record. She couldn't tune out the horrible words they'd exchanged and the more she dwelled on them the harder her knees shook until finally Cecelia had to sit down in the chair because her legs were no longer steady enough to support her. Her arms wrapped around her own body trying to fight off the chilled apprehension that was slowly pervading all her limbs.

After a minute of just sitting, Cecelia bent over to pick up the rolls of bandages that had spilled out of her basket sometime during her argument with Robbie. As she reached down to grab a roll CeCe noticed that her hand was trembling something fierce making it difficult to grasp the bandages long enough to pick them up. Eventually she gave up trying and sat back in her chair, tears leaking down her cheeks not even bothering to swipe them away feeling unbelievably lost.

VV

"Dude what happened between you and Cecelia?" O.C. asked as he slid into the restaurant booth next to Silky and across from Mac, "She hasn't spoken to you in over a week."

"Nothing happened," was Mac's sullen reply, "We don't have to spend every waking second together."

"You haven't spent any waking seconds together lately," Silk said snatching a mozzarella stick off Mac's plate while he was distracted defending his lack of interaction with his formerly attached-at-the-hip best friend, "Did she finally realize how worthless you are and decide to upgrade to a newer, better model? Perhaps someone tall, dark-haired, and from the great town of Boston?"

"Trust me you could never handle the mood swings."

"Too true," he responded waiting till Mac looked away again to snatch the last six remaining cheese sticks from his plate and his cup of marinara sauce at the same time, "I guess she's stuck with you then."

"So let me see if I've got this straight," Jack laughed as Robbie remained clueless to Silky's less-than-sneaky maneuvers, "Nothing happened, but suddenly Cecelia refuses to speak to you and you've been moody as all get out ever since. What the hell did you do to the poor girl?"

"Maybe it was her who did something to me, ever thought of that?"

"Or maybe you're too stubborn to admit you're in the wrong and that's why you refuse to so much as look at her when she's around."

"Dammit O.C. I told you it was nothing. Just leave it alone, this isn't yours or anyone else's business. What happened, or didn't happen, is between Cecelia and I so just butt out."

Jack held up his hands not eager to piss off his friend any further, 'Look Mac all I'm saying is this is your best friend we're talking about, don't throw that away over some stupid fight."

"We're not fighting," Rob insisted a stubborn mulish look firmly attached to his face.

"Keep telling yourself that. We're not stupid Mac; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something is wrong with you two. We're all just trying to help."

"Well stop helping," he snapped reaching for his plate and frowning when he found it empty, "Where the hell did my food go?"

Silky looked up chewing the last bite of Rob's missing food, "You ate it."

"I did not."

"Yes you did," Silk nodded enthusiastically to emphasize his point, "I sat here and watched you do it. Maybe this thing with Cecelia has you more upset than you realized if you can eat a whole plate of food without noticing."

"There's no thing!" Mac exploded glaring at his empty plate before sinking down in the booth to sulk over his misfortune. His mind was still replaying their fight the previous week and no matter how Mac tried to spin it, nothing could change the fact that their argument had been entirely his fault. Fighting with Cecelia hadn't even factored into his plans the morning he'd stopped by for ice. He'd planned on casually bringing Mark up in conversation and finding out what was really going on. So much for that.

All of his well-laid plans had flown out the window the instant he'd spotted Cecelia sitting on Mark's lap laughing in a way that was usually reserved for Mac. Robbie had almost instantaneously slipped back into the comfortable pattern formed in high school of being a complete asshole when faced with the prospect of losing CeCe to another male. It was an irrational fear, but Mac had always been afraid that one day Cecelia would fall in love and her feelings for him would diminish in the face of her newfound feelings. Mac had been promising himself for years that his childish behavior would stop, but time and time again his resolve faltered in the face of the strange yet powerful emotions that hit him at the idea of losing Cecelia. Fear was an intense sensation and Robbie dealt with it the only way he knew how by covering it up with anger.

The click of feminine footsteps should have alerted him to trouble, but he was too busy bemoaning his fate to take much notice until she was practically upon them breaking up his pity party.

"There's my favorite boy from Boston," CeCe called out as she caught sight of Silky not even glancing his way, "I was just looking for you."

O.C. threw her a pout complete with a puppy dog eyes, "I'm not your favorite?"

"Of course you are."

Silky punched Jack in the upper arm for horning in on Cecelia, "Then what does that make me?"

"My favorite," she replied unconcerned by the contradiction reaching out to snatch a french fry off his plate dipping it in ketchup before tipping her head back and dropping it in her mouth.

"But—" O.C. began only to be cut off by Cecelia, "I tell all of you that you're my favorite. It cuts down on the jealousy. It's been working like a charm so far."

"We all know I'm the favorite," Silky boasted stretching out his arms and flexing, "Who could resist this body?"

"Anyone in their right mind," Jack smirked at Silky who was struggling for a comeback before CeCe reached out to pinch him in the arm lightly, "Be nice."

Her movement angled her body enough that she finally noticed Mac huddled in the back corner of the booth glaring defiantly at her.

"Oh it's you," she replied her tone cold enough to send the world into a second ice age, "I didn't know you were over here."

"What? You wouldn't have come over if you had?"

Cecelia shot another condescending look his way, "You said it not me."

"You're being such a child CeCe." Mac's eyes had gone dark with anger after her verbal barbs.

"My, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black I don't know what is."

"I can't believe you're still acting like this.

In a seemingly impossible feat of humanity Cecelia's gaze got even icier, "I can't believe you're surprised after everything you did."

"What exactly did he do?" O.C. put in hoping to finally find out what had really happened to drive such a wedge between them, "Every time I ask about it he just says—"

Mac and Cecelia both turned on him at once matching glares firmly in place, "Nothing!"

"Yep, that's exactly what he says. Good guess," O.C. let out a low whistle as their dark stares continued to be focused on him, "Oh-kay, I'm shutting up now."

"Best idea you've had all night," Silky observed watching in awe as Mac and CeCe returned to bickering back and forth like children not letting a single opportunity to insult each other pass.

"You're a rude, disgusting, annoying asshole!"

"At least I'm not a klutzy, boring, stubborn, temperamental ditz!"

Cecelia reared back, "Oh so you think I'm a ditz now? Let me tell you something buddy, you're not so smart yourself!"

"Smarter than you," Robbie taunted barely restraining himself from sticking out his tongue.

"You are such a —"

"Cecelia," Silky interrupted deciding their name calling had gone on long enough, "Do you want to go dance with me or something?"

She smiled sweetly at him a stark contrast against the spitting-mad glower she'd been shooting at Mac for the last five minutes, "I'd love to, that's why I was coming to find you in the first place." Her eyes narrowed again as Cecelia looked back at Robbie, "Maybe I shouldn't dance. It might be a little too slutty for some people."

"Just don't sleep with him and you'll be fine."

"But I'm having so much fun whoring myself through the entire team. I'm not sure I can resist."

"How about we go have that dance now?" Silky cut in again afraid that bodily harm was going to begin soon if those two weren't separated.

"Gladly," Cecelia spit out turning on her heel to march away, "I've had enough asshole for one night."

"Don't forget to use protection," Mac called after them earning another scowl from Cecelia and a pleading look to stop antagonizing her from Silky.

"Seriously man," Jack said after he took a moment to get over his shock, "What the hell is up with you two? And if you say nothing again I'm going to snap your scrawny neck."

"We're in a little bit of a fight," Robbie eventually conceded, "It's nothing too serious."

VV

"He told me they're in a 'little bit of a fight, nothing too serious'" Jack said incredulously to Buzzy, Silky, and Rizzo the next day, "As if they hadn't just spent fifteen minutes tearing each other's head off right in front of us."

"Exactly which part of their argument was little?" Silky asked, "Was that before or after they blistered my ears with their insults?"

"I'd probably say before, but I could be wrong."

Buzzy looked around their little circle, "Well Cecelia informed me that if a moose ate Robbie she couldn't care less, but don't worry guys then she told me that they're not fighting."

"We have to do something," Rizzo decided sick of being forced to hear a play-by-play of the fighting every day since it had begun, "What do you think we should do Buzz? You're the expert on these two."

"Usually I'd agree that I'm an unparalleled expert on Mac and CeCe war tactics," Buzz said nodding his head, "But this is undocumented territory even for me. I've never seen them act like this before."

"This might require some serious intervention," O.C. glanced at each boy in turn, "Are we prepared to do whatever is necessary?"

Silky didn't even hesitate, "Yes! If I never hear those two fighting again it will be too soon. I can't handle much more of this. You'd think one of them would get tired of it."

"They don't," Buzz explained, "When CeCe's feelings get hurt she goes into defense mode lashing out at anyone who gets in her way. Unfortunately Mac doesn't react very well to that particular mechanism. He gets mad that she's still mad, and she gets even more upset because he's mad at her. It's a vicious cycle."

"What do you usually do to speed up the reconciliation process?" Rizzo asked still stumped for ideas.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I told you, I've never seem them like this. They always make up on their own eventually. Usually after they've had a few hours to cool down apart, but this has definitely gone above and beyond a few hours."

"Well we need to do something," Jack reiterated frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm for his project, "We can't just sit around doing nothing. We'll all go mental after another week of this."

"I don't think we should. If we start meddling with them, it'll just get uglier and Cecelia won't be talking to any of us. The best thing we can do is run interference between Mac and CeCe until things have cooled down between them. Maybe if we minimize the contact everything will just smooth out on its own."

Jack still looked annoyed that there wasn't more they could do to speed up the process of uniting the best friends to their former state of peace and happiness, but he nodded to acknowledge the wisdom of Buzz's words, "Maybe you're right. Spread the word guys, everyone is to try and keep Mac as far away from Cecelia as possible whenever the opportunity arises."

"I think we should all invest in earplugs in case our plan to keep them apart goes awry," Silky advised in all seriousness from his seat by the window, "I think I'm actually going a little deaf from all the yelling."


	8. Making Peace

Jack slammed his way into Buzzy and Rizzo's room looking flushed and more than a little excited, "Buzz, um, exactly how much damage do you think Cecelia could inflict on Mac if they were stuck in a relatively small space together?"

"Probably quite a bit," Buzz replied without glancing up from the magazine he was reading until O.C.'s words sank in a bit and he glanced up in a hurry, "Why? What did you do?"

O.C. beamed a smile looking mighty pleased with himself, "Nothing big, I just decided that we needed a better plan to hurry along their reconciliation."

"I thought we agreed to just let them be. Were you not listening to my whole speech about how it was best to let Cecelia deal with her feelings and then let her talk things out with Mac on her own time after things calmed down?"

"We did agree, but nothing was happening. Do you have any idea what it's like to live with Mac when he's in this state? It's not pretty. He gets all whiny and snappish. Not fun."

Rizzo popped his head out of the bathroom door toothbrush held loosely in his fingertips wrapped only in a towel around his waist, "What did O.C. do now?"

"I don't know yet," Buzz looked from Rizzo back to Jack, "What did you do?"

"I locked them in the supply closet outside the locker room together. An hour ago," he added as an afterthought, "I thought it might be a nice way to get them to talk to each other."

"Or kill each other!" Buzzy let out a string of curse words that would have made his mother blush, "What the hell possessed you? Do you have any idea what could happen if they start fighting in such an enclosed area? She'll kill him, she really will. I'm not even kidding. If he says the wrong thing and hurts her feelings that's the end of Mac, bye-bye it's been good knowing you."

"Don't you think that's being a little dramatic?"

"Would you want to be stuck in a supply closet with Cecelia while she's on a rampage? For an hour?" Buzz asked fixing Jack with a penetrating stare and at the expression on the Boston boy's face he nodded, "I didn't think so."

O.C. gulped noisily, "Maybe we should go rescue him now while he hopefully still has all his limbs."

Rizzo signaled them to wait and disappeared back into the bathroom before emerging fully clothed and ready to save Mac from whatever harm had befallen him at Cecelia's hands.

"I can't believe you did that," Buzz muttered darkly glaring at O.C. and his poor planning.

Jack shrugged, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm not really known for my forward thinking."

"Stupid."

"Ok, ok, I get that. It was stupid of me to take things into my own hand, but you have to admit that something had to be done. They were getting absolutely nowhere on their own and it has not been a pleasant two weeks for the rest of us constantly having to stay out of their way or risk being maimed in the crossfire."

Rizzo nodded, "He's got a point. Maybe this will be just what they need to make up."

"Maybe," Buzz conceded still looking skeptical, "How about this? We'll walk by and if we hear cries of pain or anguish we let them out, but if it seems like things are going ok we'll leave them in for a while longer."

"I knew you'd come around," Jack wrapped an arm around Buzz's shoulder, "It's a pretty good plan when you think about. They have no choice but to talk to each other. Yelling at each other without being able to escape is bound to get mighty annoying after a few minutes. When they tire of that the conversation will start."

"To be young and naïve," he lamented looking at the younger man, "You are obviously not an expert on the fairer sex. They can hold grudges for a lifetime if they feel like it. I've seen it happen."

"Have faith," O.C. urged, "Something is bound to happen between those two if we leave them in there long enough. Maybe Mac will finally tell her how he feels."

Buzz shook his head at O.C., "Would you give that up now? They're friends, a foreign concept to you I know, but it does occasionally happen."

"You're the one who isn't seeing things clearly. This all started up after Norway, right? And what happened in Norway? Mark happened in Norway. Don't you think that's a little too much of a coincidence?"

"No."

"Trust me. Mac has more than friendly feelings for CeCe. He might not have realized it yet, but it's completely obvious to everyone else. They're perfect for each other."

"Thank you Dr. Freud," Buzz bowed slightly in Jack's direction, "Next time I need to be psychoanalyzed I'll look you up."

Rizzo contemplated both sides for a minute before putting in his opinion, "I think Jack might be right Buzz. They say they're just friends, but is your relationship with her anything like her relationship with Mac?"

A few seconds passed before Buzz reluctantly shook his head, "No."

"That's right," Jack jumped back in, "Her friendship with Mac is completely different than her friendship with everyone else here. That says something right there. Mac must be jealous out of his mind at the idea of Cecelia kissing someone else, it's so damn obvious. I almost hate to say that it never occurred to me till just now to put two and two together. The idea of CeCe kissing Mark has Mac so crazy that he can't help but walk around here like someone just took his favorite toy because someone did!"

"So Cecelia's his favorite toy? That sounds like a relationship dream come true," Buzz voiced still unconvinced by Jack's argument.

O.C. shook his head in frustration, "She's not like a toy, but it's sort of the same principle. Mac thinks CeCe is his and suddenly here comes someone else swooping in on what's his. It pisses him off, but he doesn't know why he's pissed off so he gets even more pissed off and finally Cecelia blows her top because Robbie's being completely unreasonable and viola! I've just figured their whole fight out in a matter of seconds."

Rizzo looked like his head was still spinning at Jack's circular logic. He glanced at Buzz helplessly, "Did that confuse you too?"

"Yeah, but it makes a surprising amount of sense. I don't know why I never thought of it."

"You're too close," Jack explained, "You've known them too long."

O.C. got quiet and pointed toward a closed door twenty feet down the hallway, "That's where I locked them in."

"I don't hear anything," Rizzo whispered listening intently for any sounds of murder, "That's a good sign."

Buzzy, O.C., and Rizzo crept closer all careful not to make any unnecessarily noise that would tip Mac and Cecelia off to their presence. The sound of quiet murmuring could barely be heard through the door leading the boys to believe that O.C.'s plan was working surprisingly better than expected.

"Come on," O.C. waved them away from the door, "Let's give them some more time before we let them out."

Buzzy shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad you thought of this."

Jack smirked, "It's my natural brilliance."

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself," Rizzo chuckled quietly at O.C.'s assertion, "Your plan can't be deemed a full success yet. We have to wait to see if they're still talking after you let them out."

"They will be."

VV

One hour earlier…

"Dammit O.C. let me out!" Cecelia screamed pounding on the thick wooden door with both of her small fists as the key turning in the lock made her panic, "I'm going to tell my dad about this and he's not going to be happy!"

"You might as well not even bother," a quiet voice spoke up from the darkened corner, "I tried smashing my way out earlier with no success. We're stuck in here until they let us out."

CeCe spun around to face the familiar face, "So this is what this is all about. I should have known."

Robbie shrugged, "O.C. must think we need to make up sooner rather than later."

"Open the door Jack!" she took up her pounding and screaming again in earnest, feeling anything but eager to spend more time than necessary with the cause of her emotional turmoil. "Please?" she tried inflecting her voice with a touch of sweetness, "With a gigantic cherry on top?"

"I'm sure he's gone by now."

"Don't talk to me."

"Gladly," Mac replied moving his legs to the side allowing a space for Cecelia to sit down among the mops and buckets littering the floor.

After weighing her options CeCe gave in and sank to the floor pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. The sound of breathing filled the air, but she refused to break the heavy silence to speak with him. The time ticked slowly by leaving Cecelia with nothing to dwell on but the situation that had got them in this mess to begin with before Robbie's inability to sit still on the floor began to distract her.

His constant restlessness began to get on her nerves as he changed positions constantly staying still for only seconds at a time. "Stop wiggling," she hissed at him pulling her legs up tighter so as not to touch him, "If I have to sit in here with you the least you could do is sit still."

Mac obligingly stopped his movements, but seconds later the sound of his finger drumming filled the small closet making CeCe almost scream in irritation, "Could you please just cut it out. No sounds, no moving, no nothing."

"Fine."

"Good."

Both parties lapsed back into silence, but it was broken soon after by Robbie, "So are we just not going to talk or what?"

CeCe spared a second to shoot him a glare, "No, we're not going to talk."

"Fine."

"Good."

Only scant precious moments later, "We're really not going to talk?"

A groan escaped her throat, "Do you want to?"

"Only if you do."

"Well I don't," Cecelia muttered turning her head to face the wall refusing to glance at him again, "I'm pretty sure we've said everything that needs to be said already."

"Me too," Robbie agreed, "You really don't want to talk?"

It was all she could do not to scream at his incessant prodding, "Would it make you shut up if we talk for a bit? Fine, let's talk."

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked innocently looking like he actually meant the question.

"I didn't sleep with Mark," Cecelia murmured unsure what had caused the sudden outburst of truth after two weeks of refusing to give him the satisfaction of admitting her lie.

"What was that?" Mac looked over at her, "I couldn't hear what you said."

She briefly considered repeating some other statement, but in the end she stuck with the original, "I said that I didn't sleep with Mark. I only let you think that because I was so pissed off at you."

"Why are you telling me that now?"

Cecelia kept her eyes glued to the wall, "I don't know, I guess I didn't want you to keep thinking that I did."

"Do you want to hear my secret?" Robbie asked just as unsurely as she'd offered up her own secret. At her nod he continued on, "I was scared that being an ass had cost me my best friend. I didn't like that feeling."

"You know that won't happen," she sniffed as the familiar feeling of tears rushed in from behind her eyes, "But you were mean."

"You didn't tell me about Mark and I had to hear about it from Pav and Verchota. Do you know what it's like hearing stuff about your best friend from other people? Then I saw you with Mark that morning and I overreacted. I'm really sorry."

"That's not good enough," Cecelia swiped at the moisture barely falling from the corners of her eyes, "I'm not blameless in this fight, but you started it and I want to know why."

"CeCe—"

"No," she interrupted him, "I want a real reason or nothing from you. Do you have any idea what it felt like to have you come at me like that? It sure as hell didn't feel good Mac."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it anymore. I don't want to talk about this anymore until you're ready to tell me what made you act like that, ok?"

"Ok." Mac didn't argue, he didn't quickly offer up another line to placate her, he didn't even try to tease her into letting it go like he probably could have. He simply sat, unwilling to not abide by her one simple request. He owed her that much at least.

A cool, small hand slipped by his before entwining her fingers with his. Her head dropped down to rest on his shoulder and she sighed as if suddenly the world was getting to heavy for her to handle on her own, "Is it ok if we just sit here for a while?"

Mac rubbed his thumb over the ridge of her knuckles absent-mindedly in the silence of the darkened closet before letting out his secret, "I'm scared."

Her head lifted off his shoulder to meet his gaze through the shadows clearly surprised that he'd chosen to answer her demand so soon, "Of what?"

"Losing you I suppose," he finally answered after taking another minute to formulate his reply, "One day some guy is going to sweep in, fall in love with you, and make you fall in love with him. Where does that leave me?"

"It leaves you my best friend. Same as always Mac, nothing would change even if I was to fall in love with someone, Mark or otherwise. You and I have something special. Do you think I'd just give that up because some boy comes along and puts stars in my eyes?"

"Are you in love with Mark?"

"Nope," she answered and teasingly grinned at him, "Are you?"

"Be serious CeCe."

"I am. Mark is just my friend. He kissed me on the plane to Norway, but neither of us felt anything. It was all just a mistake and not one we're planning to repeat. The towel thing was all a result of my broken shower. I just needed Mark's room for his hot water, nothing more. There was absolutely no sex or love involved."

"I feel stupid now," Mac confided staring down at their clasped hands enjoying the sight and feel of such a familiar action. It comforted him to see their hands joined together, fingers wrapped around each other so naturally.

"You made me cry, you know."

His chest tightened at her words. Her words hurt him more than any brand of physical punishment, "I know."

"You're the one person who can always make me cry," Cecelia observed laying her head back down on his shoulder, "I don't think I like it."

"I don't like it either," Robbie replied in a low tone reaching up to brush a stray strand of hair off her cheek, "I'm sorry I made you cry."

"Me too," she sniffled once again, but kept the tears from falling by the sheer force of her will, "When do you think O.C. is going to let us out?"

"I have no idea," he chuckled at the thought, "Hopefully he mentioned this to someone else because knowing Jack he'll forget about locking us in here and leave us here all night."

Almost immediately after Mac made his prediction the sound of a key being inserted into the lock and turned broke up their conversation. "Guess not," Cecelia murmured pushing herself to her feet and awaiting the door to be swung open. Robbie rose behind her and they stood together a united front ready to blast the cause of their captivity.

The sudden light blinded both for a minute before the stunned faces of Rammer and Bah came into focus.

"What the hell are you two doing in here?" Rammer asked staring at them in shock, "Should we shut the door and pretend we never saw you in here?"

"It wasn't like that," Mac clarified looking both ways down the hallway searching for O.C., "Jack locked us in here to work out our problems."

"That explains why O.C. sent us to come get the extra pads for Herb that were supposed to be stored in here with the mops," Bah muttered annoyed that O.C. had set them up to get the potential brunt of Cecelia and Mac's anger.

"Well I'm glad that's over with," Cecelia brushed past all three boys eager to be out in the open hallway and out of that damp closet, "I'd love to keep this party going, but I still have a ton of stuff to do before practice tomorrow. I'll talk to you later Mac. Bye Bah. Bye Rammer."

"It looks like O.C.'s plan worked," Rammer observed as all of them watched CeCe quickly walk down the hallway.

Mac was distracted by Cecelia's departure and didn't even hear Rammer's words until Bah bumped him, "What? I'm sorry, I missed what you said."

"You've got it bad," Bah said watching Robbie stare down the hallway after CeCe's departing back.

"Got what bad?"

"You'll find out someday," Rammer clapped Mac on the back in brotherly affection before turning to walk away with Bah leaving him alone.

Mac stared after them and then back down the way Cecelia had gone. He had no idea what those boys were talking about half the time and this was no exception. Now he just had to go find O.C., beat the crap out of him, and then thank him for his interference. His meddling might be a tad on the overbearing side, but Mac couldn't fault the man for achieving what he hadn't been able to. Peace with Cecelia.


	9. Life Just Got Interesting

"Hey CeCe, can you help me out later tonight?" Jimmy Craig asked as he passed her on the way to the locker room, "I need someone to throw tennis balls for me. Coach Patrick usually does it, but he has an appointment tonight."

Cecelia looked up from the clipboard she'd been making notes on, "Throw tennis balls?"

"It helps me practice my hand-eye coordination," he explained waiting for her answer, "With your dad riding me so hard I need all the practice I can get."

"I can come by around seven if that's ok with you," she offered after mentally reviewing her schedule and to-do list, "I should have some free time by then."

"It's a date. I'll bring the tennis balls and you bring your throwing arm."

"Don't use the d word around the boys."

Jimmy looked at her for a minute trying to figure out her warning, "The d word?"

"Date."

"Oh," he nodded in understanding, "Don't want to stir up World War III again?"

"Not in this lifetime. Knowing this bunch, seconds after hearing that we're on a date rumors will be flying that I'm having your love child and we're eloping to Vegas as soon as you have a free day."

"I don't blame you," Jim grabbed his bag again before getting ready to leave, "I'll see you at seven then. Thanks a bunch CeCe. I really appreciate it."

"Anything for you doll." Cecelia watched him walk away before returning to her clipboard feeling overwhelmed by everything her dad was throwing her way. The pre-Olympic season was just swinging into full gear leaving CeCe with mountains of paperwork and on top of that her dad had her watching every practice making notes about what she thought needed to be changed and what was working. With all that piled on top of her recent brawl with Mac, CeCe was beginning to feel understandably swamped.

Her musings were interrupted by another sweaty hockey player invading her space. The smell of wet jersey and sweat filled her nostrils as Mac settled onto the bench beside her.

"You need a shower."

"Hello to you too."

"Sorry," Cecelia shrugged her shoulders at the hard truth of the matter, "You smell. Fact of life babe, hockey and smelling good do not go hand in hand."

Mac didn't go on the offensive at her words; he just sank lower on the bench leaning back to rest while watching her scribble impressions from practice frantically on the clipboard, "Did you write anything about me?"

CeCe scanned over her words to refresh her memory. "Mac is driving hard on the defensive line and is a huge asset on the offensive as well. He and Johnson seem to have good chemistry on the ice and I think they'd play well on the same line together," she paraphrased off the notes on her clipboard skipping around to all the parts that mentioned Robbie. It was only after it had left her mouth that Cecelia realized mentioning Mark, even in casual conversation, was perhaps not the best course if she wanted continued peace.

"All good things," Robbie observed appearing unfazed by the comment concerning Mark, "You must like me more than you let on."

"I like your hockey playing," CeCe corrected smartly, "That has nothing to do with you as a person although I happen to be rather fond of you in spite of the numerous flaws that you have absolutely no trouble showing in front of me."

"You really know how to make a guy feel loved."

"Well I try."

Mac leaned forward unlacing his skates while continuing their conversation, "What did Jimmy need?"

"Something about tennis balls, my throwing arm, and hand-eye coordination, I'm not sure what I just signed up for, but he asked and I said yes."

"What would we do without you?"

"Probably shrivel up and die," Cecelia hypothesized reaching to her right and snagging a towel for Mac off the clean pile that still needed to be returned to the locker room. He nodded his thanks rubbing the perspiration trails off his face and towel-drying his sweaty hair to rid him at least partly of the just rolled out of a sweat-bath feeling.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hit up a movie or something this weekend. Your dad has that meeting on Friday so we have a free day. We could do dinner and then a movie if you want."

"Can we see Dracula?" CeCe asked batting her eyelashes flirtatiously with a teasing smile knowing that Mac would willingly submit to almost any of her requests as long as he wouldn't end up dead as a result and even then it was a toss-up on whether or not he'd do it anyway. Robbie took care of her at all costs and Cecelia knew that in the end it didn't matter because she took just as good care of him. They were a package deal. You never got one without the other and that's the way she liked it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Mac pushing himself up off the bleachers, "I better go take a shower before all this sweat dries on. I'll call you in the morning to set a time for dinner, ok?"

"I want Pizza Hut," she called after him earning a laugh from the boy who knew her well enough to anticipate her choice in restaurants. Ever since they'd been old enough to drive out for dinner minus the company of their parents, CeCe had been requesting Pizza Hut and never once had Mac turned down her request. He was just that kind of friend.

VV

Cecelia strolled right through Jimmy's open doorway later that night not even bothering to announce her presence aside from the loud groan and theatrical flop onto his empty bed. "Shoot me now," she declared dramatically not shifting an inch after hitting the soft mattress.

"Tough day?" he asked emerging from the bathroom clad in sweatpants and an old gray ratty t-shirt complete with gaping holes.

"Try tough week."

Jimmy sat down on the bed next to her, careful not to bounce her with too much force looking sympathetic, "If you're too wiped, don't worry about this. I can skip a night."

"No," CeCe protested instantly shaking her head with force against the bed, "You need the practice and I need the outlet. Throwing tennis balls will be good for my aggression. Trust me, this is just what the doctor ordered."

He stood up offering her his hand, "Should we go? I've got the tennis balls."

"And I've got the throwing arm," Cecelia finished for him looking more upbeat than she had only minutes ago.

Jim led her to a dead-end hallway and handed her the small bucket of yellow fuzzy balls. "Just bounce them against the wall," he instructed crouching down into position in preparation for her toss.

"Hard?"

"Whatever. Just try to vary the angle you bounce it so the ball is harder to catch."

CeCe shrugged still unsure of exactly what was expected but picked up a ball and hurled it against the wall watching with satisfaction as it rocketed back eluding Jim's hand by a scant few centimeters, "I'm good at this."

"Just wait till I get warmed up," he threatened in a deep voice before ruining it with a smile that belied his tone.

On and on it went over the next hour until it almost became routine. Cecelia would throw fast and furious while Jimmy's hands caught as many balls as humanly possible missing only occasionally. Soon they were comfortable enough to start conversing and their conversation drifted through a variety of topics including everything from the unusual heat wave still sweeping through Minnesota to the names of their pets growing up. Bitsy the cocker spaniel for her and Sparkles the tabby cat for him.

"Please tell me your mom named the cat," Cecelia pleaded giggling helplessly at the thought of such a big, strong hockey player naming anything Sparkles.

"I was six, ok?" Jimmy replied in defense of his name-choosing abilities as a child, "I was an only child who spent a lot of time with his mom. Of course I was going to be prone to girlie names. I've since grown out of it if that makes you feel better."

"But Sparkles?" she burst into a fresh round of laughter, "That is too funny."

"I'm so glad I amuse you," Jim attempted to maintain a frown but knew that it would be short-lived in the face of Cecelia's delighted laughter, "Next topic, please."

After nodding her agreement CeCe stopped throwing for a minute to rack her brain for another interesting line of conversation. "So is there a girl back home in Boston waiting for you?" she asked settling for the tried and true topic of romantic interests.

CeCe was surprised to see Jim's cheeks actually flush at the mention of an until-that-moment hypothetical girlfriend. "You do have one," she accused reaching out to smack him in the upper arm, "And you never told me?"

"It never came up."

"You should have brought it up. I want to hear all about her. What's her name?"

"Mandy." Just the mere utterance of her name had Jimmy grinning like a besotted fool.

Cecelia stopped all pretenses of helping him practice instead dropping to sit cross-legged on the floor looking enthralled, "What does she look like?"

"She has brown hair, but not as dark as yours, it's more golden if you know what I mean," CeCe gave a quick nod and Jim continued on after settling down on the floor as well, "Big blues eyes, tall, slender."

"Oh Lord," Cecelia moaned, "She's willowy. I hate those willowy girls; they are a plague on the female population who make the rest of us normal people feel bad. I suppose this willowy Mandy is gorgeous too."

"I think so," Jimmy agreed before surprising her with his next statement, "But that's just my opinion. It's not about looks with Mandy although I do think she's attractive. There's just something about her. I love the way her eyes light up when she sees me even if it's only been five minutes and the way she has a smile that's just for me. That's what makes her beautiful to me."

"I wish someone would look at me the way you must look at her."

Jim glanced up at her for a long second before answering, "Someone does."

An eye roll seemed like the only appropriate response, "Oh really and who might I ask would that be?"

"Never mind," he eluded her question by distracting her with one of his own, "So do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?"

"I'm going to dinner with Mac tomorrow and then he's bringing me to the movies after that, but nothing else. I'm taking Rammer shopping for a tux Saturday afternoon. One of his friends wants to take him to her high school fall formal and he elected me to be his fashion supervisor."

"A date with Mac followed by a shopping expedition with your baby, sounds like an action-packed weekend," Jimmy observed idly tossing a tennis ball back and forth to keep his hands busy.

"It's not a date Jimmy."

"Dinner then a movie, I could be wrong but that sounds like the quintessential dating plan."

CeCe frowned at the direction their conversation was taking. "But its Mac," she protested, "We're just friends. That's all we've ever been."

"Just because that's all you've been up until now doesn't mean that's all you're ever going to be."

"If you're trying to confuse me it worked," she deadpanned unwilling to follow Jimmy down the path he wanted to take their little chat. Her friendship with Mac was just getting back to its familiar routine. The strange feelings she'd been experiencing lately only added to her confusion. Just this morning during practice Robbie had smiled up at her in the bleachers and damn if her heart hadn't actually fluttered. It was a discomforting emotion and not one CeCe was familiar with.

Why did life have to be so complicated?

Everything had been going fine until the whole mess with Mark and then to make things worse these weird longings she'd been experiencing in relation to Mac had popped up out of nowhere sending her into a tailspin. It just wasn't natural. They were friends. Best friends.

Once again Jimmy interrupted her thoughts before she could even attempt to try and make sense of them, "So you're telling me you've never thought about dating Mac?"

"I've thought about it," Cecelia admitted, "But I've thought about shaving my head too. Doesn't mean I'll actually do it or that I even want to."

"Except you do want to."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

CeCe restrained herself from reaching out to smack him. If she never had to deal with a team of meddling hockey players again it would be too soon. It was half their fault that she was having such a hard time getting rid of her pesky attraction to Mac anyway. If they weren't so intent on shoving them together at every turn maybe she'd be able to just ignore it until it went away as she was sure it would. One day CeCe would look back on this and laugh chalking up her temporarily love struck emotions to insanity induced by too many hours with matchmaking hockey players. Or at least that's how she hoped things would turn out.

"That's not how it is and you know it," she protested her words sounding false even to her own ears. A few short weeks ago Cecelia could have argued this case and won, but with her newfound romantically-inclined feelings mocking her at every turn she was finding it hard to fight with the same zealous energy that she'd once had.

Jimmy looked at her as if he could see the myriad of emotions swirling around in her brain and took pity on her, but not without one last parting shot, "Just watch how he looks at you. He wants you. He may not know it and obviously you haven't realized it, but it's there. Now how about we go watch some TV before you head for home. Sound good to you?"

"Better than good," she smiled in gratitude glad that at least one boy on the team knew when not to push. Things were hard enough without everyone telling her what to feel or who to feel it for especially when those very same questions were impossible to answer on her own.

VV

"She's asleep?"

Jimmy nodded silently to Mac who looked at the sleeping girl draped across the small bed and asked without taking his eyes off her, "Do you want me take her to my room?"

"That would probably be more comfortable for her than waking up in my bed. Somehow I get the feeling that she'd feel better if it was you she woke up to and not me."

Mac walked closer and picked her up in his arms enjoying the feel of her small body cradled next to his body, "Someone should probably call Herb and Patti to let them know where she is."

"I can do it," Jim offered holding the door open for Mac as he passed through the doorway being careful not to jar Cecelia awake, "I'll see you in the morning Mac."

Robbie nodded his farewell unwilling to risk more conversation disturbing her slumber. Her face had drifted into the curve of his neck and her soft breathing tickled his neck sending slight shivers down his spine with every exhale from her parted lips.

The tangled mass of her dark brown hair obscured Cecelia's features from his view, but in Robbie's mind's eye he could picture every exquisite detail. The small beauty mark located just above her lip on the left side and her cheeks that were just a little bit round much to her disgust. Chipmunk cheeks she called them, but he'd always secretly loved them because, simply, they were a part of her.

Her delicate eyelids were closed in sleep covering up the dark eyes that were rarely missing their perpetual sparkling amusement. Those eyes could laugh in delight or blaze in rage, but either way they were mesmerizing capable of holding him in their thrall for hours on end.

Recently all these little things about Cecelia that he loved had been weighing heavier and heavier on his mind. He found himself watching her when no one was looking through a different light. No longer could he stick her neatly in the pile labeled friends because somehow she kept sneaking out demanding to be placed in a pile of greater importance. Now if only he could figure out what pile that should be. Life had gone from normal to confusing in two seconds flat it seemed leaving Robbie trailing behind struggling just to keep up.

Mac reached his doorway and kicked it lightly with his foot hoping O.C. would get off his lazy ass and actually open the door for once. Seconds later a disgruntled Jack pulled the door open his gaze softening quickly as it landed on the dark-haired girl fast asleep in Mac's arms.

"Bringing a girl to bed with you?" he asked any annoyance at being pulled away from his bed disappearing in the blink of an eye to be replaced by the smirk they all knew and loved.

"She fell asleep in Jimmy's room," Robbie explained shortly brushing past O.C. to head for his bed across the room, "He thought she might feel better if she woke up with someone a little more familiar. I agreed so here she is."

Any smart comment from O.C. was silenced by Cecelia's eyes drifting open slowly gazing first at Mac's face and then around the room in confusion, "What's going on?"

Robbie set her down on Jack's bed so he could pull down the covers on the right side of his bed, "You fell asleep at Jimmy's. It's too late to go home now so we decided you should just sleep over here for the night."

Her eyes were wide in her face, but she just nodded still looking disoriented, "Ok."

After arranging the covers Mac reached out to pull CeCe back into his arms shifting her slight body from O.C.'s bed to his in a matter of seconds tucking the blankets around her. "Go to sleep," he urged crouching down beside the bed smoothing her hair back from her face smiling as she lifted a finger to trace a line across his cheek.

"Do you want me?" she whispered her eyes still cracked open the teeniest bit before they drifted shut again her last words barely escaping on a breath beforehand, "I think I want you too."

Her hand fell limp to the bed as sleep overtook her again leaving Robbie staring at her in amazement. What had she said? His wide eyes looked at her and then up at O.C. who was looking at her just as surprised and finally back down to her innocent face relaxed in slumber.

_I think I want you too_ echoed through Mac's mind as the possible implications of her sleepy words slammed into him from all sides.

"And you said she didn't like you," O.C. finally said breaking their silence with his version of a joke not sure exactly what his roommate expected of him in this kind of situation.

"Shut up Jack," Mac replied not even fully comprehending his friend's statement his mind still completely wrapped up in CeCe's sleepy ramblings. Eventually Robbie rose up from his position kneeling on the floor and made his way to the other side of the bed stripping off his shirt and pants as he went. Wearing only his boxers he slipped between the sheets shifting his pillows so he could watch Cecelia recognizing even then that sleep would be a longtime coming after her unusual declaration.

Damn if life hadn't just gotten even more interesting.


	10. Doughnuts and Freak Outs

Cecelia knew something was weird before she even opened her eyes. Her legs were tangled with ones of the hairier variety generally belonging to a man and her head was resting on the strong arm of the unknown bed partner not to mention that fact that her hands were pressed against his warm chest as if they belonged there. Her eyes stayed tightly shut in the hope that when she finally opened them whatever body she was currently curled up against would be gone. When seconds passed and nothing changed CeCe cracked open one eye and found herself face to face with a peacefully slumbering Mac.

A stray lock of hair had fallen over his forehead making him look much younger than his twenty-two years reminding her of the boy she'd once known. Cecelia couldn't resist smiling at the picture reaching up to brush the hair off his face enjoying the feel of his skin beneath her fingertip.

Snippets of the night before started to filter through her mind. She could remember reruns in Jimmy's room and then a brief flash of being carried by Mac followed by a remembrance of touching his face much like she was now and saying something before sleep overcame her. Her nose scrunched up in thought as she racked her brain for memories of what had been said the night before but to no avail. Her words eluded her best efforts to focus on them and eventually CeCe gave up sure that whatever had been said couldn't be that important in the grand scheme of things anyway.

Mac's eyelashes fluttered a little in response to her gentle touch on his forehead. Her fingers stilled on his skin waiting for him to drift back to sleep. A soft exhale escaped from his lips and on their own accord CeCe's fingers wandered down to trace across his lower lip. Something innocent shone in his face during sleep tugging at her heart strings in an almost painful fashion. She smashed down the worry that reared its ugly head in response to the strange feelings because for just this moment Cecelia was content to simply be with him.

Robbie's eyelids finally opened slowly blinking once and then twice before focusing on her face, "Good morning babe."

Cecelia smiled wider at his sleepy grin her unease swelling larger in the back of her mind at the natural feeling of waking up next to Mac. Somehow it didn't feel right that something so out of the ordinary should feel so right and normal. "Hey," she whispered dropping her fingers back down to rest on the pillow underneath her cheek.

"Did you sleep well?" Mac questioned his voice slightly roughened from sleep.

Cecelia nodded to answer his question and then asked him one of her own, "Not that I mind, but why am I in your bed?"

"You don't remember?" Was it just her or had his face fallen a little after that last question? After a second Cecelia dismissed the idea when a plausible reason for why he'd be disappointed failed to appear in her mind.

"Not really," she murmured afraid that a normal tone of voice would ruin the moment surrounding their sunshine soaked little bed, "The last thing I remember is being at Jimmy's and then I have little flashes of you picking me up but nothing after that."

"You fell asleep over there and not a dozing sleep but like a hardcore don't-wake-me-till-morning type sleep so he called me to come get you around one o'clock last night," Robbie explained absent-mindedly running his thumb over the knuckles of her hand that somehow had ended up in his grasp. The familiar action soothed Cecelia like nothing else in the world.

"Poor Jimmy," she groaned in embarrassment horrified that he'd been forced to call Mac in the middle of the night to come get her off his bed, "I can't believe I did that."

"He didn't mind," Mac consoled her, "He just thought that you might mind come morning if you woke up in bed with him. Somehow Jimmy thought waking up to my face would be a little more reassuring for you."

It was only after his words made her giggle a little for almost no reason that Cecelia noticed neither of them had shifted away from one another since waking. Her legs were still tangled with his and only a scant few inches separated the rest of their bodies. His left arm was around her body and the hand he wasn't holding rested lightly on his chest.

"Mac," Cecelia started uncertain of what she wanted to say, but knowing that this was definitely turning into a situation that needed to be addressed, "I think we need to—"

Before she could continue or Mac could reply, the door burst open revealing O.C. and Silky carrying a plate of doughnuts and a glass of orange juice.

"Look the lovebirds are awake," Silky pointed out placing the plate next to him on Jack's bed before stretching his legs out to rest on a chair off to the side, "We thought you two would sleep half the day away."

At the lovebird comment both Mac and Cecelia had shifted away from each other almost toppling off the bed on either side in their collective haste to achieve a more platonic space between themselves.

"Don't move on my account," Silky said lazily swinging his doughnut back and forth in his hand before taking a large bite out of the side, "I love doughnuts. Dough fried in a vat of grease and then rolled in sugar what a genius idea."

Cecelia's annoyance over their intrusion faded quickly as the scent of fresh bakery doughnuts wafted past her nose. "Are all those for you?' she asked beaming a sweet smile at them, "Or do you have enough to share?"

Jack snatched the orange juice Silky had placed on the bedside table and handed it to her, "This is for you and we brought you a glazed doughnut and a bismark with vanilla filling. We weren't sure what kind you liked."

"My two favorite kinds," she declared in ecstasy seizing the two doughnuts, one in each hand, and grinning wider, "I love you guys."

"What kind did you bring me?" Mac asked trying to get a better view of their remaining selection hoping they'd brought him a twist, a little put out that they seem to have forgotten his glass of juice.

Silky looked at Mac like he'd gone insane, "What do we look like your delivery service? Get your ass out of bed and go get your own. You have legs. They're all down in Pav's room."

"But you brought CeCe doughnuts!"

O.C. shrugged, "She's a girl and she's cute, two things that you are not."

"Double standards are a bitch," Silky proclaimed munching happily on his doughnuts.

Careful to balance her doughnuts in one hand Cecelia rolled out of bed searching for her shoes while sipping her orange juice, "Are we still on for pizza and a movie tonight?"

"For sure, does seven o'clock sound ok for dinner?"

"And then the late show?"

"What else?" He answered in reply knowing that most of their questions were asked simply out of habit since both of them had been adhering to the same routines for years. Pizza and a late show had been their fallback plan for as long as he could remember. Cecelia liked late shows because the theater was less crowded and they could mercilessly mock the movie if it turned out to be a dud or merely talk without feeling bad about interrupting the theater-going experience of those around them and he liked late shows because she liked them.

She attempted a wave with her hand that was still clenching her doughnuts unsuccessfully making all the boys laugh at her effort, "I'll see you tonight then."

O.C. had the decency to wait till Cecelia was out of earshot before he threw a pillow at Mac, "Just friends, huh? Sounds like a date to me."

Mac glowered annoyed both with their teasing and with his lack of doughnut, "It's a not a date."

"Going to dinner and then a movie, alone? Sounds like a date to me, what do you think Silky?"

Silky nodded his agreement still preoccupied with consuming as many doughnuts as possible in the smallest time frame possible unconcerned with the direction of their conversation since it was one he'd sat through before.

"Why don't you come along then if you don't believe me?" Mac asked hoping that his invitation was sincere enough that O.C. would shut up but insincere enough that even O.C. would understand he wasn't actually being invited along. No one could call it a date if he was willing to invite his teammates to come, but that didn't mean Mac wanted to ruin a perfectly good evening with just CeCe by dragging along a couple of guys to prove a point.

Of course, Jack being Jack didn't read the fine print and just sat there nodding his head looking pleased with the invite, "I don't mind if I do Mac. I've been waiting for you to ask. Do you want to come along Silky? I'm sure Mac won't mind."

"Some other time fellas, Pav and Verchota have a massive poker tournament set up for tonight and I'm planning to make a killing."

"Looks like it's just going to be you, me, and CeCe," Jack smiled slinging a casual arm around Mac's shoulders, "This is going to be fun."

VV

"Buzzy I need you!" Cecelia burst through his door without knocking only looking mildly concerned by the sight of Rizzo dressed in a rather small towel sitting on his bed drinking a mug of coffee. "Hey Rizzo," she said breezing past to peer in Buzz's corner of the room before turning on a dime and heading for the bathroom door.

"I hope you're decent," CeCe called wrenching open the door and barreling her way in. She slammed the door behind her, breathing hard and collapsed onto the edge of the bathtub frowning as a wet sensation spread across her bottom because of the wet rim.

"Hello to you too," Buzzy replied not even bothering to appear surprised by her less-than-elegant entrance having grown used to her propensity toward dramatic entrances over the years, "What's up with you?"

"I think I'm going on a date with Mac," she said pausing for dramatic emphasis waiting for Buzz's gasp of shock perhaps followed by the southern-belle swoon. That's how shocking her news was.

"Ok."

"OK!" Cecelia cried unable to believe that he was taking this so calmly, "Exactly what about this situation is ok? I mean I'm freaking out here and all you say is ok. What's wrong with you?"

He managed to restrain himself rolling his eyes, but only just barely, "Why don't you tell me what's wrong about it first? Then we can talk about how to fix things."

"Everything! This is Mac we're talking about, not some random boy I picked up off the street. It'd be like dating you, but weirder!"

"Why do you think it's a date?" Buzzy decided to attack the situation from a different angle knowing that trying to make Cecelia see reason at a time like this was an impossible feat. She needed time to calm down before rational thought would resume. If anyone else was here, Cecelia would do a surprisingly realistic imitation of pulled together for their sake, but with just Buzzy around to see her freak-out she let it all hang out.

"Well he didn't call it a date," she started her eyes still a bit wild after her frenzied flight down the hallway. The minute she was out of sight of Mac, O.C., and Silky she'd made a dash for Buzzy's room knowing that he'd be able to make sense of her situation. "But we're going out for dinner and then to a movie and Jimmy told me that those two things equal date. Usually I wouldn't believe him, but things have been a little weird between us lately. I slept over there last night because I fell asleep at Jimmy's watching TV so Mac came to get me, and when we woke up you couldn't have fit a nickel between us. The worse thing of all is that I liked it! I liked sleeping with Mac and I really liked waking up with him! That's not good Buzzy!"

Her whole tirade was unleashed in a flurry of words making it difficult for Buzz to follow her rambling train of thought much less understand it although he was definitely getting the feeling that O.C. had been right in his prediction of more than friendly feelings between the two of them, "Ok, slow down for a minute CeCe. It's ok if you like Mac as more than a friend. No one ever said you couldn't."

"But I don't," she protested, "Mac is just Mac. He's not boyfriend material at least not for me. I'll admit that lately I've been having some, well, some strange feelings where Mac is involved, but nothing that won't get away. It's probably a result of stress and not getting enough sleep."

"So you don't like him?"

Cecelia shook her head decisively, "No absolutely not."

"I'm still not convinced Mac meant this as a date," Buzzy said after thinking for a minute about the best course of action, "You're probably just letting Jimmy get to you, but if you don't want Mac to think this is a date, just bring someone along. He can't call it a date if you bring another friend with."

"That's perfect," CeCe exclaimed throwing her arms around him noticing only at that moment that he was dressed in just a towel like Rizzo and there was still soap in his dripping wet hair, "Did I interrupt your shower?"

"A little bit," Buzzy laughed, "I'm just glad I got a hold of a towel before you came bursting in like a rampaging soldier or you would've seen way more than I'm comfortable with."

"So," Cecelia started their conversation back the way it had been headed and flashed Buzz a mega-watt smile, "What are your plans for the evening?"

He returned the smile with a wink, "I'm going out to dinner and then to a movie with two of my best friends of course."


	11. Exploring the Possibilities

Cecelia tossed the final load of whites into the washing machine before playfully throwing the empty laundry bag at Mark who caught it easily in one hand while dumping laundry detergent into his machine.

"So how was the movie last night?" he asked dropping the lids and walking toward her.

Ever since their first experience washing clothes Mark had made it a habit to help Cecelia with the team's dirty laundry whenever she managed to wrestle the job out of their hands. She enjoyed their uninterrupted time together the hours usually flying by in a flurry of conversation and the easy laughter of friendship.

"The actual movie was good, but the movie-going experience was not so good."

He arched an eyebrow at her in surprise, "And why was that?"

"Between my freak-out beforehand, two tagalong guests, the general awkwardness, and Pizza Hut screwing up our order it was basically a wash from start to finish," CeCe explained making a face at the memories, "Everything just went wrong."

"Why did you freak out?"

"Let's just say, I let all you guys get to me until I was so confused about Mac that my head was spinning. After two minutes with Jimmy he had me scared cross-eyed that our movie night was really a date so I brought Buzz to the movie and lo and behold guess what Mac did?"

"What?" Mark asked even though he knew it was a mostly rhetorical question that she'd answer with or without his encouragement.

"He brought O.C. along. So obviously it wasn't and never had been a date which left me feeling pretty stupid all night long. I've just been so confused lately and this whole date fiasco didn't help at all."

He leaned back against the washing machine listening to her ramble on, "Confused about what?"

"Mac," she sighed and put her head down in her hands unsure of where to begin, "Things have just been different between us these past few weeks. I can't really pinpoint what's different, but I know that something is off. When I look at him my stomach feels all funny and I'm nervous. Why in the world should I be nervous around Mac? He buys me tampons for goodness sake! I'm more comfortable with him than anyone else in the world, but yet here I am suddenly unable to string coherent sentences together when he flashes that smile at me."

"Are you going to get defensive if I say you might like him as more than a friend? I know all the boys have been vocal about sharing their opinion, but have you ever considered that they might be right?"

Cecelia groaned out loud at his comment and her eyes were wide in her face as she glanced in his direction, "But I can't just like him Mark. He's my Mac. Losing him would be like losing the best part of me. I can't risk that on some little schoolgirl crush."

"Maybe it's more than a schoolgirl crush."

"This is weird," she pointed out not looking particularly worried by her observation even though she was taking the time to bring it up, "Should we even be discussing my potential love interests together considering our own sordid past?"

Mark grinned at her, "I wouldn't call one kiss a sordid past and I don't mind talking about it if you don't."

"Technically it was two kisses," she clarified with an answering grin, "But who's counting?"

"Not me. Maybe you should talk to Mac and see if this whole confusion is all in your head or if he's feeling it too. Then you guys can sort things out from there."

"Always my voice of reason," CeCe proclaimed throwing her arms around Mark in an impromptu show of affection, "Between you and Buzzy I practically have my own private therapists."

"That'll be two hundred and fifty for this session," he deadpanned before cracking a smile, "Now tell me, how do you feel about that?"

Cecelia laughed at his joke, "I feel like you're ridiculously overpriced."

"But worth it?"

"Definitely worth it."

Silence reigned for a minute before she glanced back up at him the scared look once again raging in her eyes, "I don't know what to do Mark."

He wrapped his arms around her again for several long moments before leaning back to look down at her all joking gone, "I know CeCe, but everything will work out in the end. You'll see. If Mac isn't head over heels for you already than he's crazy and doesn't deserve you anyway."

"What if I'm not head over heels for him?"

"You aren't?"

Cecelia recoiled a little at the point-blank question. "I don't know!" she cried looking distressed again, "What happens if this ruins everything? I don't think I can survive without him."

"Talk to Mac," he urged shoving her lightly toward the door, "I don't want to see you again until this has all been figured out."

"But—"

"Stop being such a girl," Mark ordered cutting off her retort, "You're not going to fix anything if you're too scared to say how you feel."

CeCe sighed as if the weight of the world was once again being laid on her shoulders, "That's the problem; I don't know how I feel."

"Then you best figure it out girl and soon."

VV

The sound of gravel-crunching footsteps broke through the stillness of the air surrounding Cecelia as she sat on a swing in the small playground that had been a witness to so many of her late-night musings. She watched him walk toward her slowly but steadily and her traitorous heart did a small flip-flop in her chest.

"You should have a coat on," Mac scolded taking in her sweatpants and beater with a critical eye before seating himself on the ground at her feet sprawling his legs out in front of him, "Aren't you freezing?"

Cecelia rubbed her arms feeling the goose bumps for the first time that evening. "I'm all right," she finally replied to appease Mac knowing that without her assurances he'd fuss over her all night if he had to.

He whipped off his sweatshirt ignoring her words, "Put this on."

When she opened her mouth to protest Robbie cut her off before any arguments could spill forth, "Please? Even if you don't need it, it'll make me feel better."

For good measure he settled the sweatshirt over her head pulling it down to envelop her slight body. The warmth of his body lingered on in the cotton thawing out CeCe's icy arms and the scent that was distinctively him filled her nostrils. It was a mix of soap and the lingering salty scent of sweat that never quite left him. For her it was the smell of memories. That scent was tied to almost every moment of her life and it never failed to evoke a feeling of safety.

"So why are we out here freezing when we could be inside?" Mac finally asked after Cecelia stayed silent except to huddle into the warmth of his sweatshirt.

"You smell good," she murmured ignoring his question for the time being still unsure of what her answer was going to be.

"Thanks, you don't smell so bad yourself."

CeCe smiled at Mac's ability to not push her for answers before she was ready. They sat in silence awhile longer both lost in their own thoughts, but it was a comfortable silence between people who were held together by a bond stronger than any other they'd ever known.

"This has been a strange few weeks, huh?" she said after a few more moments of peaceful stillness.

"It's definitely been eventful," Mac agreed brushing stray strands of dried grass off the bottom edge of her jeans with his thumb before bringing up the motive behind his interruption of her solitude, "I had a feeling that you needed me tonight."

Her eyes were sad even though her mouth curved upward into a half-smile. "I need you all the time," she admitted briefly meeting his eyes before gazing anywhere but in his direction.

He caught her hand as it fiddled with the cuffs of his too-long sweatshirt stilling her movements, "I need you too babe. You know that. You and me, we're a team."

Jimmy's words flit through her mind for an instant at the sensation of his fingers entwining with hers, _he wants you_. Suddenly more than anything, she wanted those words to be true and not just the wild musings of a hockey player with too much time on his hands and a hidden romantic streak.

It was in that moment that CeCe let down her guard and acknowledged the newfound feelings that she'd been trying to squash relentlessly for weeks, but along with her inner confession came the clarity to realize that her feelings weren't as new as she made them out to be.

No one had ever made her feel the way Mac did just by sitting next to her, his hair tousled and his eyes locked with hers. It explained why her boyfriends had come and gone while Robbie was her one constant through all of life's curveballs. She was flighty and driven by whims while he was solid and grounded, catching her every time she fell. He made her feel safe.

She was done with being scared and she was ready to take a chance on something she wanted without analyzing if it was the right thing to do. Right now, right here she wanted him and that was enough.

"Mac."

"CeCe," he echoed after her.

Another smile tugged at her lips as he tilted his head and matched the worried expression currently gracing her face. Cecelia stood up and moved to kneel between Mac's outstretched legs putting their faces at the same level.

"This is scary," she whispered settling onto the ground with less than a foot of space separating their two bodies, "I'm sitting here trying my hardest to find the right words and I can't. You know me, I like words. They're easy for me. I have words for everything, but yet here I am with nothing."

"Right words for what?"

Cecelia swept her hand in small arc as she spoke, "For this, for you and me, for the way I feel when I'm with you, for everything."

"Oh."

Robbie mentally kicked himself for such a lame response, but found it impossible to express in words all the thoughts that were running through his mind. The memory of Cecelia sleepily touching his face and admitting that she wanted him repeated itself like a broken record making his heart beat speed up until it was thumping along like a runaway freight train.

"Do you know what Jimmy told me?" she asked using all of her willpower to maintain the steady eye contact and answered her own question before Robbie had a chance to speak, "He said that you wanted me and I was just wondering if he was right."

Before CeCe could comprehend what was happening Mac was leaning toward her and suddenly his lips were on hers. The touch of his lips on hers was almost chaste but it still managed to take her breath away. It lasted only seconds, but it was the most powerful kiss of her life. She caught herself tilting her face to maintain the contact as he lifted his head.

He took a second to catch his breath and Cecelia took comfort in the fact that his chest was heaving wildly and his cheeks were just as flushed as hers. "I want you," Mac said leaning back to rest his forehead on hers their faces only a hairbreadth apart now, "I don't know when it happened, but here it is and I don't know what to do with it."

"I'm confused too. I thought I had us all figured out and suddenly here we are back at square one trying to find out what we are to each other." She traced a line down his jaw and neck with her fingertip smiling as his eyes drifted shut and he moved into her touch, "What are we doing here Robbie?"

"I'd say we're exploring the possibilities," he teased trying to inject a little humor into their conversation, "And boy do I like exploring with you."

"You've been spending too much time with O.C. He's turning your mind dirty."

Mac winked at her, "You like it."

"So we're just exploring the possibilities?" CeCe asked still hoping to make sense of the situation she'd somehow found herself in without meaning to, "Are we going to tell the boys?"

Another thought occurred to Mac almost simultaneously and he looked at her in horror, "What about your dad? He's going to kill me for this."

"Or me," she groaned.

"Should we tell him?"

"I think if this is actually going to go somewhere we have to tell him. He'll just be madder if we hide it." Cecelia looked at Mac belatedly a new shyness in her eyes, "Is this going somewhere?"

"Do you want it to?"

"Do you?"

Robbie frowned at her refusal to answer the question unsure if her evasion stemmed from uncertainty or from a genuine desire to keep their friendship as it was. No changes. He sincerely hoped it was the first and not the latter. "I asked you first."

A deep breath later Cecelia looked him square in the eye, "Yes. I want this to go somewhere."

The smile that spread across Mac's face in response to her honest answer was all the reaction she needed to feel brave enough to put her next thought into action. Both of her small hands came up to rest on his face, "I've been wondering something else too."

"Oh yeah," Robbie said enjoying the feel of her cool hands on his flushed cheeks, "What's that?"

"I was just wondering if you'd be up for some more exploring."

A peal of laughter rumbled out of his chest at her words and the mock-seductive glance she sent his way accompanied by a bawdy wink. "I think we could probably work something out."

She didn't wait for him to make the move this time instead she pulled his face toward her meeting him halfway and once again the sensation of his lips on hers made everything go blurry around the edges leaving only Robbie in sharp focus. This is what she'd been waiting her whole life for. This moment with this man.

Robbie pulled back several minutes later his heartbeat fluttering erratically after the prolonged physical contact with the only girl who'd ever managed to turn him so completely inside out. "I really like exploring," he worked out watching in delight as she collapsed into a fit of giggles and eventually moved to rest her head on his shoulder her breath tickling his neck.

"I like this." The soft words broke through the silence and squeezed at his heart in a way that only Cecelia could achieve by words alone.

He stroked the stray hairs off her forehead and pressed a small kiss to her temple, "Me too babe."

"We need to take things slow," CeCe didn't move her head off his shoulder but she did look up enough to meet his eyes to show him how completely serious she was in her request, "This is all new and I'm not sure if we're, if I'm, ready to take too many steps forward until I've had more time to think. I want this right now, but what happens if I wake up tomorrow and suddenly this all seems like a big mistake?"

Mac nodded in agreement, "We've got all the time in the world CeCe. There's no need to rush into anything serious. No labels, no expectations. We'll take this nice and slow, ok? Nothing happens until both of us are ready for it. With the Olympics in February we aren't going to have a lot of free time anyway, let's just keep everything low-key."

"Perfect," she sighed before untangling herself from his arms and standing up while offering him a hand to help him to his feet, "I have to get home and you have to get back to the room. O.C. is probably wondering where you went."

"He'll survive. You never did answer me earlier, what are we going to tell the boys?"

Cecelia wrinkled up her nose at the idea of telling the whole team of meddling hockey players anything at all before they were sure of what their relationship was themselves, "As little as possible."


	12. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

"CeCe!"

She could hear Mac calling her name from down the hallway, but instead of turning around to face him she ducked her head lower and picked up her pace hurrying toward her dad's office praying that he'd give up and leave her alone. In the early light of morning Cecelia was finding it hard to recapture the feeling that things would be all right that had wrapped itself around her comfortably like a cloak last night against the coolness of reason that was now chilling her to the bone.

"Cecelia," she heard again faintly this time as if he was giving up the fight realizing that now was not the time to push her for answers.

Reaching the door that meant safety CeCe snuck a look back down the way she'd came just in time to see Robbie's shoulders drop in defeat before he turned to head down to the locker room to get ready for practice. The sight of him looking so dejected squeezed at her heart, but a larger wall of endless fear kept her from calling out his name to ease the sting of her avoidance.

"I'm sorry. I just need time," Cecelia whispered down the empty hallway knowing full well that he couldn't hear her before slipping inside the office and using the heel of her hand to resolutely close the door behind her.

VV

Cecelia looked up as Mark knocked on her dad's office door a huge smile on his face looking eager to catch up on the latest developments in the sage that was Mac and CeCe's relationship, "So what happened last night between you and Mac?"

"Nothing," she replied shortly swiveling in the office chair behind her dad's desk stacking the insurance forms in neat piles before picking up the next stack of paperwork on her to-do list hoping her matter-of-fact answer would stop his questions, "We talked things out until we were both on the same page and now everything is fine." Well sort of fine she amended in her mind but kept that tidbit of information to herself not feeling up to opening that can of worms quite yet.

"So nothing happened?"

There went that plan. Apparently Mark was determined to find out some answers even if he had to drag them out of her bit by bit. CeCe didn't look up from the paper she was jotting information on, "Well he kissed me and then I kissed him a little more, but that's about it. Nothing really."

"That's what you call nothing?" Mark cried incredulously walking further into the room and shutting the door so they could talk in private without interruption, "Are you two together now?"

"No."

"Dating casually?"

"No."

"Going steady?"

"No."

"Friends with benefits?"

"No."

"Anything?"

"Besides friends you mean? No."

Mark shook his head in exasperation, "What are you then? Usually when a boy kisses a girl he wants to be more than friends." He flinched at the remembrance that only weeks before he'd been trying to kiss her and hastened to clarify, "Sometimes it doesn't work out though. Did it work out between you and Mac?"

"Kissing him felt—nice," she finally said after coming to the decision that telling Mark about how much more Mac's kisses had affected her was not in anyone's best interest if their friendship was to remain the same minus any hurt feelings.

"You don't have to tone things down for me. We're friends, right?"

"Of course we are."

"Well then you can tell me things that you'd tell a friend without feeling all weird just because we have a very, very small wedge of history between us. I know we've talked this to death, but I mean it when I say I'm happy that you and Mac seem to be working things out."

"We decided to take things slow and just see what happens," CeCe explained unsure why she was even bothering to inform Mark of their decision after it had been decided that the less the boys knew the better, but since he'd been the one who urged her to own up to her feelings in the first place she felt like he deserved the information, "No labels. We're just friends who happen to have some more than friendly feelings for each other."

"So you are together?" he asked again apparently not understanding the gist of her clarification, "It sounds like you're together."

"We're more than nothing, but less than something," Cecelia struggled with finding the right way to put into words something she was still so unsure about herself, "We're just going to wait it out and see what develops."

"You're making this so much more difficult than it needs to be."

She ignored Mark's exaggerated eye roll and instead refocused her attention on the paperwork at hand, "You better get out on the ice before my dad kicks your butt for being late."

"Be careful CeCe," he warned showing his first flash of apprehension in relation to her starting something with Robbie whereas before he'd been nothing but encouraging, "He could hurt you if you're not careful. Mac would never try to hurt you on purpose, but I know this means more to you than you're letting on. If this doesn't work out—"

"Don't worry about me, I have everything under control."

"CeCe."

She held up a single finger stilling his words, "I'm a big girl you know. I'll be ok. Now get your butt down to the ice before my dad gets mad at me too for keeping you."

When he hesitated just inside the doorframe Cecelia flashed him a small smile, her first genuine show of emotion that morning, touched by his obvious concern for her welfare where Mac was involved, "Really Mark, I'm fine. I know what I'm doing."

At his raised eyebrow she hastened to correct herself, "Well ok, I'm not completely sure what I'm doing. I've never tried to start a relationship with one of my guy friends much less with Mac, but I'll muddle through somehow."

"I'm just worried about you. You're not as tough as you let everyone think you are."

It was amazing how much Mark had deduced about her personality simply from observation of her actions and habits. The old saying was true; it was the quiet ones that you had to worry about. He noticed so many little things about her that she'd learned to take for granted that most people wouldn't pick up on. The only other people in her life who knew her so totally and completely were her family, Buzzy, and of course Mac. It wasn't exactly a source of pride, but Cecelia knew that she wasn't easily readable for the average person off the street. It had served her well over the years, allowing her to hide the hurt feelings when nasty high school girls snubbed her for being too much of a jock or to act happy when all she wanted to do was cry. She knew more than anyone that it was near impossible to decipher her emotions if she didn't feel like sharing them.

In her life only Mac had been able to see past the walls that she constructed as a defense to the scared hurt within. It was odd that two such completely different men were capable of understanding the complexity of her emotions at any given moment with or without her permission. CeCe almost wished that her present strong feelings for Mac were directed toward Mark. It would be so much easier to start a relationship with someone she'd just met instead of trying to find a safe path through the mine field of turning friendship into something more that lay before her.

"Thanks for everything Mark," she finally replied waving her hand at him to shoo him out the door leaving her all alone with her thoughts, "I'll see you after practice."

Mark paused again just outside the doorway, "Just think about what I said. Make sure you know what you want before you throw yourself into this whole-heartedly. Don't get me wrong, if Mac is what you want, go after him with every ounce of your energy, but if you're at all unsure take things slow. A best friend is hard to come by."

"Everything you're saying is everything I've been telling myself for weeks. You're a good friend and I really appreciate your concern, but I'll be all right," Cecelia reassured him hoping to allay his fears over her potential heartbreak before attempting another weak smile, "This sure is a 180 from the 'go get your man' attitude you were preaching yesterday. Change your mind about sending me chasing after Mac?"

"No I didn't. I still think you and Mac are perfect for each other and I know you're going to be all right," Mark admitted looking straight at her, "But I can still worry about you if I want to. If it makes you feel better, I'm just as worried about Mac. You have just as much, if not more, power to hurt him as he does for you."

CeCe didn't reply to his observation, but the truth of his words mocked her from all sides as she struggled to refocus her attention on the forms she was supposed to be filling out. What he said was true, both herself and Mac had the ability to hurt each other if this thing between them didn't pan out. It was scary to consider the idea that the one person she'd always counted on to be there when other people hurt her was potentially going to hurt her the most.

Oh Mac, what did we do? Cecelia questioned waiting until Mark retreated back into the hallway to silently drop her forehead to the desk resting her face in her hands. I don't know if I can handle this.

Whatever emotionally carefree attitude has possessed her and made this thing with Mac seem like a good thing should be taken out back and shot so it would never rear its ugly head again. In the light of day, free from the haze of romance, Cecelia was finally realizing the enormity of what she'd agreed to last night in her strange burst of spontaneity. Most people cut their hair when they were feeling spontaneous; they didn't agree to start romantic relationships with their best friends.

Oh God Cecelia prayed in desperation running her anxious fingers through the tangled hair falling down around her face Please help us figure this out without hurting each other. Please, please, please let us not ruin what we have together over a potential case of exaggerated lust.

VV

A week later Cecelia was still questioning her sanity and wondering what strange creature had taken over her body the night she'd irrevocably changed the course of her friendship with Robbie. She'd spent the past week avoiding any alone time with him and instead making a safety wall between them built of the surprisingly un-clueless hockey players. It was a coward's way out, but at this point CeCe was running so scared that she couldn't find it in herself to care.

Her strange behavior hadn't gone unnoticed. Mark wavered between smiling gleefully at the pair of them and frowning in worry every time he noticed Cecelia's eyes go dark with anxiety or Mac's expression drop after another of her repeated brush-offs. Buzzy spent his time shifting his gaze back and forth between Cecelia and Mac aware that something had happened, but still unsure exactly what. O.C. appeared to know things had changed too and more often than not his eyes were lit with a dangerous light that just screamed I have a plan or even scarier, perhaps it was more I'm going to have a plan. Silky being Silky wasn't quite sure what was going on, but pressed on in spite of it in his normal good-humored ways using every opportunity to flirt with Cecelia unconcerned by the glowers Robbie had taken to sending his way.

And that was only the beginning. Everyone on the team appeared to have noticed the shift in behavior between Cecelia and Mac. Everyone was on edge, unsure of how to act or what to say. Just this morning Verchota had showed up to practice with a small bouquet of daisies for her, just because as he'd explained his cheeks red with embarrassment over the gesture. They were all afraid of a meltdown apparently having noticed the perpetual lack of color in her cheeks lately and were going out of their way to see to it that she was never upset or pushed too hard.

It was sweet in a way, but mostly it just felt smothering. All she wanted was some time to sort things out in her head all by herself before sitting down again with Mac to talk about her conclusions. Maybe she'd been too hasty in agreeing with the idea of giving their newfound feelings a shot, or maybe, just maybe, she was just scared to death of getting hurt and hiding it underneath a cover of indifference Cecelia admitted to herself not for the first time. This fear of commitment was a strange and powerful force. Previous relationships had never been this confusing or this emotionally-draining. In all honesty, Cecelia knew that never before had she contemplated a relationship with someone like Mac, someone who had the ultimate power to hurt her or save her.

Growing up is hard she reflected later that night sitting out on the front porch of her house feeling the cool October air cut straight through the thin layer of cotton separating the night air from her tender flesh. Somehow the iciness felt good, numbing her emotions just enough that they shrunk from mammoth proportions to a more manageable size that wasn't quite so scary and overwhelming.

The door behind her squeaked as her dad pushed it open with his foot and emerged two cups of hot chocolate in hand. "Here," he offered holding out the plain white mug decorated with little red and pink hearts before settling down beside her on the stairs, "Your mother thought you might need something to keep you warm."

"Thanks dad."

The two of them sat in silence for a few long moments before her dad broke the silence, "Do you know what I admire about you the most?"

He asked the question without turning to face her keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the horizon in front of him awaiting her answer. She looked over at him for a second surprised by the unexpected turn in conversation not sure she was feeling up to one of his pep talks, "I don't know."

"Your fearlessness, every time I think you're going to back down from something you step it up and face whatever it is straight on without flinching. I love that about you. I've watched you face down hockey players twice your size and bullying girls on the playground all without letting them see you sweat."

Tears welled up in her eyes at his words and she angrily wiped at the stray droplets of water irritated that her emotions were getting the best of her yet again. She didn't want to be one of those girls. The ones who cried over every little thing and dwelled on their boy problems— more than anything she wanted to be the girl her dad was describing, but right now Cecelia could barely muster up the strength to stop her tears much less face down her overwhelming fear of the consequences a relationship with Robbie meant.

Her dad continued on seemingly unmindful of her emotional state, "Watching you play hockey has always amazed me. Nothing can take away your determination. You set your eyes on the goal and you never quit until you've succeeded."

He smiled at the memories that his little speech was evoking and it was only then that he turned toward her looking her square in the eyes, "Why are you running away from Mac? This doesn't seem like you CeCe. You never run from the things you want."

"How did you know?" she breathed out the surprise openly written on her face.

"I'm not blind," Herb laughed at her shock, "I've been waiting for you or Robbie to realize what your mother and I have been able to see for years. There's always been something unexplainable between the two of you that couldn't be broken. I was hoping you'd wait until after the Olympics to see what has always been right in front of your face, but no such luck apparently."

"But how did you know something had happened? I've barely spoken to Mac this week and no one else knows."

"Robbie has been playing like crap all week and you've barely smiled. Two very clear indications of a fight or love problems and since I haven't heard you cursing him into the next century lately I just assumed the latter."

"He kissed me last week," she admitted unsure of whether her father was going to blow a gasket that she'd broken his rule against being involved with his players even though he'd been surprisingly cool about it so far, "We agreed to give this thing between us a try, but I don't know, the next day everything inside me was yelling to run away before either of us got hurt."

"So you're waffling on the poor boy now? That can't be fun for him."

"It's sure not fun for me."

Herb took a sip of his hot chocolate taking a moment to formulate his response, "You have to make a decision. Decide what you want and go for it. Do it the same way you play hockey. Pick a goal and go after it."

"I thought I had," Cecelia said watching the little marshmallows bob around in her mug of mocha-colored liquid, "Mac and I decided to take things slow and see where things went, but here I am right back where I started, scared to death."

"Fear has never controlled you before."

"I've never done something like this before."

He tossed her a slight smile, "You've dated other boys before. You were pretty serious with Tim Harrer last year weren't you? I remember because I was just glad you'd chosen to date him outside of hockey season so I didn't have to worry about his play going to hell."

"But he wasn't Mac. None of them were Mac," CeCe replied knowing that her father would understand the difference even if most people wouldn't. He understood the relationship between the two of them and the potential fall-out that could occur if things went sour, "That makes all the difference in the world."

"I know it does sweetie, but no pain, no gain, right? You and I have always believed that and this isn't any different. You can try to ignore how you feel about him to keep your heart safe, but then you're giving up the possibility of a really great thing."

"What if it turns out to be not so great?"

"Then at least you know you tried," Herb said rubbing his palm in circles on her lower back, a comforting action that dated back to her early childhood, "I don't want you to look back on this moment in your life ten years from now or even one year from now and ask 'what if?' I don't want that for you."

She pulled her knees up to her chest wishing she could sink into herself where things weren't so confusing, "It's not that simple. I can't just decide to pursue this thing with Mac and ignore the huge part of me that's shouting 'Bad idea! Step back! Run away!' can I?"

"What did you used to tell yourself right before a particularly big guy checked you in high school?" he asked the innocuous question seemingly out of nowhere, and it wasn't until she thought about the answer that the reason for it became clear.

"Don't worry Mac will get him back for you," Cecelia joked with a genuine smile before seriously answering the question, "I used to tell myself that nothing worth getting was easy and it wasn't going to hurt as bad as I thought it was."

"I think you just answered your own question."

"But what if the hurt isn't less than I think it will be, but worse?" she questioned again unwilling to put herself through another week like this last one. Before she reaffirmed her decision to pursue a relationship with Robbie, she was going to be absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure that it was what she thought was right for her and for him. Robbie didn't deserve this anymore than she did. If their positions were reversed and it was him who was waffling on the decision she'd be more than a little annoyed. He was in limbo just as much as she was and Cecelia was determined to make the right choice for them both.

"Then it is, you'll have to deal with that if and when it comes" Herb reached for her empty cup and made moves to stand up, "Remember what you said, nothing worth getting is easy."

Cecelia looked up at her dad and asked the question that had been in the back of her mind since the beginning of their conversation, "I thought you didn't want me to date one of your players. What changed your mind?"

"That's simple. I saw how bad Mac plays without you. I'll do anything to avoid having to watch that ever again."

His tone of voice was matter-of-fact, but CeCe caught the quick flash of tenderness that appeared in his eyes as he looked at her one last time before shutting the door behind him.

For the longest time after her dad went inside Cecelia sat motionlessly on the front porch his words replaying in her mind like a bad record, a never-ending loop that played over and over again without ceasing.

Before long his words were replaced by her own, her own hypocrisy haunting her through the words that had always spurred her on when things seemed impossible. At least until now they had.

Nothing worth getting is easy. It had been the phrase that got her through all of her many years of playing hockey. Every time she thought she couldn't keep going, she'd repeat that phrase over and over again until she convinced her legs to keep moving with or without the actual strength to back up the movements. Those words had braced her for checks that rattled her to her very bones without ever losing the small competitive smile that infuriated her opponents. That phrase had allowed her to let the cruel words of catty girls roll off her back with more ease than she'd once thought possible.

Was a relationship with Mac worth getting? Did she really want to wind up with a potentially broken heart and no best friend based on the slight possibility that things would work out? These were the questions that plagued her mind as little memories flashed in and out of her mind's eye serving as a reminder of all that Mac meant to her. It gave her all the reasons for saying no but yet in an obnoxious twist of fate it also gave her all the reasons for saying yes.

Seven year-old Mac offering her a half-licked lollipop after she'd fallen off her bike the first time she rode without training wheels and his promise afterward that he'd never let her fall again. And he'd kept his word, never letting her fall on his watch again.

Thirteen year old Mac bringing her to their very first school dance with a small bouquet of flowers he'd picked himself clenched tightly in his fist as he rang her doorbell. The way he'd looked at her up and down before pronouncing, "You look like a girl" with a touch of surprise in his voice as if he hadn't realized until that moment that she was indeed of the female persuasion. Their first slow dance of the night had been awkward. Mac had stared at her for almost a full minute before placing both of his hands on her shoulders keeping at least two feet of air separating them. But it hadn't taken long for his hands to drift to the still-small curve of her waist that hadn't yet started to develop on her boyishly-thin body. Her arms had entwined around his neck and before she knew what was happening their bodies had drifted closer until neither wanted to let go. It was those subtle hints that should have clued her into what was to come, but she'd spent the following years in a haze of denial that made the idea of anything more an impossibility. Successfully she'd buried any feeling that didn't fit with her idea of what their friendship was, but now they were all coming back at once leaving her with no idea of which way was up.

She could remember the day they'd gotten their driver's licenses. Mac had waited patiently for over a month until she'd turned sixteen so they could get them together as a pair like everything else in their lives. Both sets of parents had reluctantly agreed that the two of them could take Mac's new car, new to him that was, out to the movies. Their parents had stood in the driveway watching Mac navigate CeCe's driveway only slightly bumping the metal trash can before lurching off down the small side street on their first solo adventure. His smile as they drove the sunshine soaked car would forever be imprinted in her mind. She'd turned the music up as loud as it could go and both had left their windows down to enjoy the late summer's breeze.

On graduation day when her name had been called the piercing whistle coming from four rows back had caused a blush that was accompanied by an affectionate smile with a promise of retribution when his time came to walk. After collecting her diploma from their principal she walked across the small stage pausing only once to look out into the audience of her peers dressed in their black gowns and stuck her tongue out at Robbie receiving a matching gesture from him in his seat. It was a moment her mother had been unfortunate enough to catch on film, and soon after getting it developed Mac had claimed it as his own. The picture still hung on his wall amidst the literally hundreds of other mementos documenting their life together.

The first day of college had come all too soon frightening Cecelia with the prospect of spending an extended period of time away from Mac for the first time in her life. His promises to write, call, and occasionally visit had done little to calm her fears. It was only after the first week of classes when she'd arrived back to her dorm room to find Mac sprawled out sleeping on her small bed that she'd known things were going to be ok. That they were going to be ok. She'd shown him around her campus before taking him down to Canal Park in downtown Duluth to watch the lift bridge go up as the big ships came in. They'd gotten food to go from the Grandma's nearby and had eaten sitting on the pier by the lighthouse until the waves lapping on the shore had called for their attention. They'd walked through the icy small waves on the edge of Lake Superior until both of them were frozen to the bone. He'd left for his own school the following Sunday but college hadn't seemed so daunting after that. Cecelia had gone to sleep Sunday night no longer scared of the future, a smile on her face as she clutched the small monkey he'd won at the little arcade on Superior St his scent still lingering on the homely animal long after he'd left.

Time stood still as she sat there with the memories rolling over her. When CeCe finally rose to her feet brushing the loose sand and grass clippings off the back of her legs she wasn't sure if it had been minutes or hours since her dad had left her sitting alone on the porch, but it didn't matter because one thing was clear—she now knew exactly what she had to do.


	13. 2:05

"Here let me fix it," Cecelia said jumping up from her spot on the sofa to brush Rammer's hands away from his tie to undo the knot he was making of the pale blue silk, "There. Now it looks perfect."

"Thanks CeCe." The broad-shouldered brunette tugged at his tie a little looking uncomfortable in his dress shirt, slacks, and tie. It wasn't anything like his normal outfit of baggy sweats and dirty old t-shirts that she saw him in everyday and she could see that he felt more than a little unnerved by the constrictive clothing.

"Don't mess with it," she scolded looking him up and down in satisfaction for a minute before nodding triumphantly, "You look really good Rammer. Kayla isn't going to know what hit her when you pick her up in that newly cleaned car of yours."

When his eyes shifted guiltily at her words CeCe had to ask, "You did clean out your car, didn't you? No girl wants to arrive at her Fall Formal with food wrappers clinging to her heels as she climbs out of your car."

"Don't worry, I cleaned it—mostly," Rammer reassured her still fidgeting with his tie against her wishes, "Thanks for helping me pick out clothes for this thing and helping me get ready. You're the best."

"Forget about it, it's all part of the job description."

"Dressing the team for stupid high school dances that they're only attending because their friend asked them to is part of your job description?"

"Well not in those exact words, but it probably falls under the keeping them happy and healthy category," Cecelia said feeling relieved when his nervous movements ceased as he laughed at her joke. It was sweet that he was willing to attend a high school function even after graduating. Cecelia idly twirled a pencil between her fingertips like a baton as she watched Rammer bustle around in search of his left shoe. She laughed at his mismatching socks, but didn't bother to make him change since no one would be seeing them anyway.

It was bittersweet watching Rammer running around getting ready for a high school dance with one of his best friends. It reminded her of so many similar times with Mac. Even in high school when Mac was a hockey god with a harem full of women he always cleared his calendar to go to any dance with her that she didn't already have a previous date to and sometimes he insisted on going with her even when she had a date which hadn't always gone over so well.

Cecelia stomped down the wave of melancholy that started to sweep over her at the thought of Mac. She still hadn't managed to breach the wall of silence that had somehow erected itself between them. His gaze when she met it was never accusing, but CeCe could see the edge of pain darkening the smiles he tried to send her way. In the past week Cecelia had learned the difference between knowing what to do and actually having the courage to do it.

"You think Kayla will be happy?" Rammer's question was half teasing and half deadly serious, his eyes bright with anxiety. Maybe it wasn't just friendship between the two of them either CeCe mused looking at him with a critical eye wishing that his relationship would run smoother than hers was at the moment.

CeCe brushed a small piece of lint off his shoulder and smiled up at him again, "I think she'll be ecstatic."

"All right, I better go pick her up." Rammer caught her up in a spontaneous hug crushing her with his strong arms, "I love you CeCe."

"I love you too, but you can't be late for this thing or Kayla will kill you," she said shooing him out the front door pausing only once to run down a checklist of essentials, "Do you have breath mints? Nothing ruins the mood faster than bad breath."

"We're just friends."

His protest seemed a bit forced to her practiced ear, but Cecelia didn't bother to argue the point knowing that if he was anything like her he'd realize it all in his own good time, "Well it never hurts to be prepared, so, mints?"

"Check."

"Her flowers?"

"They're in the car."

"A list of compliments to shower on her all evening long to win you lots of brownie points?"

"They're all up here," Rammer said tapping his forehead with his index finger in response to her absurd question, "I think I'm going to start with you take my breath away like a hard check from a two-hundred and fifty pound enforcer on the ice."

"Ooh, very classy, if a man said that to me I would be his for life."

"Well if you like it then I'm sure Kayla will too. You two are freakishly similar which is kind of scary when I really think about it."

"And why would that be scary?" CeCe arched a brow at him daring him to say something even remotely offensive while trying to hide the smile that threatened to ruin the effect. "Is there something wrong with us?"

"Nope, you two are classy ladies who deserve all the classy lines I can come up with."

Cecelia finally gifted him with the smile she'd been withholding at his comment before asking, "Audrey Hepburn classy?"

"Definitely Audrey Hepburn-ish," Rammer said wrapping his arm her shoulders again giving her another one-sided hug before releasing her. She watched as he climbed in the car wincing only once as he almost sat on the flowers he'd placed in the front seat of his car. From the looks of things he'd managed to not ruin most of the daisies although the yellow one on the side was looking decidedly worse for the wear.

"Make sure you get a picture of the two of you for me," she called miming the action with her hands to make sure he could understand her from inside the car, "Have a good time! Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

With one more smile at her through his windshield and a laugh over her last remark Rammer pulled out of his driveway waving at her over his shoulder all the way down the block. Cecelia popped back indoors to say a quick goodbye to his mom before heading back toward her own house for dinner. The weather was beginning to turn crisper and the leaves had begun to drift off the trees to form little swirling piles on the street in front of her as she walked. CeCe hugged her arms around herself wishing she'd worn a coat over her light blue sweater as the early evening air cut through the layer of wool to raise goose bumps on her arms.

Cecelia sniffed appreciatively as she walked through the front door of her house. The smell of apple cider wafted out from the kitchen mixed with a hint of cinnamon washing their whole house in the scents of fall. Patti emerged from the kitchen mug in hand, "I thought I heard you come in. Did you get poor Mike all ready for the formal?"

"Ready as he'll ever be," she joked taking the mug out of her mother's hands and lifting it to her noise to inhale the sweet smell liking the way the fragrant steam tickled her nose.

She followed her mom back into the kitchen to keep her company as Patti finished cooking supper. Perched on the kitchen counter Cecelia filled her mom in on her afternoon with Rammer stirring the pot of soup on the stove next to her every few minutes.

"You should have seen his face when he had to put his tie on. It was hilarious. He looked at it like it was going to attack him."

"Just like your father," Patti said with a short laugh, "Must be a man thing. They don't think anything of the pain we go through to be beautiful, but try to put them in a tie and suddenly they're of the opinion that nobody should have to suffer for fashion. It's pathetic."

"Men," CeCe humphed dramatically catching her mother's eye before both fell into a fit of laughter over their shared amusement.

"What are you saying about men?" Herb asked breezing in through the door kissing Patti on the lips and Cecelia on the forehead before grabbing a mug of apple cider for himself, "Are you two making fun of the entire male population again?"

Patti tried her hardest to wipe any trace of amusement from her face schooling her features into an offended frown, "Of course not Herb. We'd never do such a thing."

"You're a horrible liar, but I love you anyway."

"I don't mind you either," Patti taunted good-naturedly shifting away as Herb reached out to snag her wrist, but after a minute of playfully eluding him she stopped just long enough for him to grab a hold of her and pull her close reveling in the familiar feeling of comfort that always came with being held by her husband.

CeCe hopped off the counter to leave them alone, but Patti pulled back just long enough to stop her daughter from running off too quickly, "Cecelia, wait."

Patti hustled over to the counter and dug through her purse before holding her hand up in triumph, "I just got these developed and I thought you'd like to see them."

"What are they?"

"Pictures from your birthday party," Patti explained handing over the thick package of photos, "Bring them back down when you're done looking at them, I haven't had a chance to look at them yet."

"Thanks mom, I will."

Within seconds of being in the hallway Cecelia had opened the package and pulled the stack of pictures out. The first one was a shot of her walking through the doorway pure shock and awe written on her features. It was a cute photo with the confetti raining down on her and Buzz, their hands clasped together. She made a mental note to show it to Buzzy knowing that he'd get a kick out of it.

The next picture was of her in her birthday get-up ala Rammer and Bah. Her jeans and plain white t-shirt were accented nicely by the tiara, feather boa, and birthday girl sash all in the same eye-shocking shade of hot pink.

She continued through the photos laughing whenever she came across an especially amusing one. There was one of Silky and O.C. skating on either side of her both of them competing for her attention. They each had an arm threaded through one of hers and all three of them were laughing uncontrollably over something that had been said. The picture of Verchota kneeling before her struggling to tie the pink ribbons on her ice skates into a perfect bow was a classic, but it didn't quite compare to the picture of her sitting on the floor of the rink rubbing her sore behind after falling over at Rizzo's request. CeCe rubbed her thigh in remembered pain before going on to the next picture.

She flipped quickly through the six pictures her mother had taken of her birthday cake and skimmed past the random group shots of everyone skating around the rink. Cecelia paused again at the picture of her hugging Jimmy after he'd brought out the cake. It must've been taken right after she'd told him how proud his mom would be of him judging from their posture Her gaze was tender as she held him and his eyes were tightly shut, his hands clenched into fists even as he hugged her close, pain etched into the small wrinkles around his eyes. Cecelia ran her finger over those same lines on the small picture and vowed to make sure he spent more time smiling. Luckily they'd be playing Harvard soon and Jimmy had assured her that his girlfriend would be there and she'd finally get to meet the infamous Mandy who made him blush and grin at the mere mention of her name.

It was the next picture, though, that truly took her breath away. It was a simple picture, just her and Mac skating with their hands entwined. The composition was simple, but the emotion Cecelia could read in her face and in his was not. In the picture his hand was in the air and if she was remembering correctly just seconds before he'd brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. Her face was tilted up to his and his eyes were sparkling down at her. Her breath caught in her throat at the pure happiness shining in her eyes and at the way she smiled as if he was her whole world, nothing more nothing less. CeCe flipped back a few picture and was forced to admit there was a marked difference between the smiles she gave the rest of the team and the smiles she gave Robbie.

The next picture was another of her and Mac this time she was sitting on his lap while he fed her a piece of birthday cake. Once again her eyes were laughing as he smeared a gob of frosting across her cheek leaving a trail of pink. Her head was thrown back in laughter and the look in Mac's eyes was like a punch in the gut for Cecelia. His gaze was protective, amused, and full of another emotion that she wasn't quite ready to place.

That night on her porch CeCe had thought she'd made a decision about how to proceed in her relationship with Mac, but it wasn't until she looked, really looked, at the pictures that an actual feeling of peace over her choice settled into the bit of her stomach calming the tight ache that hadn't left her in the weeks since their relationship drama had started. She stroked a finger across the photo smiling tenderly down at the two of them wishing somehow to transplant herself into the picture and feel again the joy that was so obviously written on her face.

These past weeks of not talking with Mac had been harder than she'd ever imagined possible. She's always known he was important to her, but it wasn't until she actually held herself apart from him on purpose that she realized how totally and completely their lives were intertwined. How totally and completely she needed him.

When had Robbie become someone she couldn't breathe without? The idea was true almost in a physical sense, the tight feeling in her chest made it painful to take breaths of air. She was suffocating under the weight of her feelings with no idea how to save herself.

Cecelia wished for the days when things hadn't been so mixed-up. The days when the notion of how much she truly needed Mac didn't cross her mind every other second. The days when she took for granted the fact that he'd always be around. The days when she'd blithely skipped along through life unmindful of what should have been completely obvious.

She slid down to sit on the bottom step of their staircase leading to the upstairs clutching the photo in her hand like a lifeline. It was like looking at two strangers. People she didn't know. People she didn't need to know to see how much they cared for each other.

An hour later when Buzzy came bursting through the front door of her house she was still sitting in the same spot with the pictures spread across her lap. He almost passed right by without noticing her curled up on the step wordlessly staring at the picture in her hand.

The screech of his sneakers on the hardwood as he slid to a stop in front of her startled her making her spill half the pile of pictures off her lap and onto the floor below. "Sorry about that," Buzz apologized leaning down to hastily scoop up the mess he'd made before pausing when he caught a glimpse of what the pictures were of, "Are these from your birthday?"

Her nod answered his question and within seconds he was seated next to her flipping through them. "Here I am," he said with a laugh pointing to the picture of him walking in with CeCe, "I'm still amazed that we managed to pull everything off and keep it a surprise."

"Me too."

"You can't even imagine how hard it was to keep Mac away from you."

Buzzy's eyes went wide at the unintentional mention of Mac's name and she could feel him inwardly debating how to handle the slip-up. The boys had all noticed that something was off between the two of them although no one had the guts to bring it up with either of them and Buzzy had been going out of his way to not mention Robbie in her presence.

"Oh hey, I didn't know O.C. bought you that," Buzzy recovered changing the subject quickly shoving a new picture into her hands, "I never pictured him as the stuffed animal giving type guy."

"He said his sister told him to get it for me. She said that you couldn't go wrong with a stuffed animal and the bear is holding a hockey stick so it kind of fits."

Buzzy looked at the picture again and laughed as he finally caught sight of the small little hockey stick clutched in the fuzzy bear's hand, "You're right it does fit."

He kept flipping through the pictures making comments on most of them and religiously avoiding any further mention of Mac even going so far as to skip by any picture with him in it until finally Cecelia gave in and stopped him.

"You don't have to do that you know."

"Do what?" Buzzy asked looking up surprised by the unexpected outburst.

"Do what you're doing. Acting like Mac doesn't exist."

"I didn't know what you wanted me to say," he admitted looking down at his feet instead of at her, "You two have been weird lately so I didn't want to bring up a touchy subject."

"It's ok, you can talk about him. I don't mind."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She smiled at him touched by his obvious concern for her feelings, but for once the prospect of discussing her feelings to death didn't appeal to her. CeCe shook her head gently before changing the subject, "So what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"I had to come over and see my beautiful princess of course," Buzzy teased bumping her with his shoulder and he laughed out loud when she rolled her eyes but didn't bother to argue with him over the term of endearment, "Actually my mom wanted me to come over and invite your family out for Sunday dinner. They're coming down this weekend to visit me and mom said it's been ages since she got to talk to your mom."

"My mom said the same thing just the other day. I'm sure wild horses won't be able to keep her away."

"Well darling, it's been lovely talking with you, but I'm going to go extend the invitation to your mother and then I have to go get ready for my date tonight."

"Oh, my baby is all grown up," Cecelia cooed pinching him on the cheek in a dead-on imitation of Buzzy's Grandma Mabel, "You've just gotten so handsome. The girls can't resist you. I remember back in my day—"

"Please don't do that anymore," he begged half-scared and half-amused by her ability to imitate just about anyone especially when the person she chose was his rather intimidating grandmother, "I'm going to go now before you scar me any further."

CeCe caught him before he could stand up and looped her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug, "Thanks for being here."

"But I didn't do anything."

"I know, but it was nice to just sit here with you. It feels like we haven't spent any real time together lately."

"How about this, let's get together next Friday night and do all the stupid things we haven't got to do since before training started. We'll watch all the scary movies we can get our hands on and order pizza or something. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," she sighed smiling in anticipation of such a night, "You know me too well."

Buzzy smiled back at her pleasure over the idea before standing up to go tell Patti about his mother's invitation for lunch, "I'll see you later CeCe."

She blew him a kiss accompanied by a wink and a laugh watching him disappear into the kitchen to be met by a squeal of delight from Patti who promptly swept him up in her arms like he was one of her own which in some respects he almost was. Their moms had met after Buzzy started playing hockey for the U and had been fast friends ever since even though they didn't live within easy driving distance of each other. Phone calls were plentiful between the two women and both families tried to travel one way or the other at least once a month to keep in touch.

Patti poked her head out of the kitchen a few minutes later after Buzz had left holding a ladle with one hand and an oven mitt in the other, "It's time for supper honey. Will you come set the table?"

"I'll be right there mom." With one last look at her pictures Cecelia stood up and made her way to the dining room for supper. The next few hours passed rather quickly in a haze of familial laughter and love. Their dinners were always rather loud and boisterous with Patti and CeCe subject-hopping through conversations and occasionally bursting into loud peals of laughter over their shared amusement. Herb always looked amazed that his wife and eldest daughter could talk so long and so loudly about nothing in particular. Cecelia's younger siblings fought for attention from the adults eagerly shouting over each other about school work and friends until everyone ended up leaving the table with a Brooks' family dinner headache. Cecelia would congratulate Kelly on her first place finish in the spelling bee while Patti told Danny to just ignore the boy who insisted on calling him shorty on the playground and Herb would stare around the table marveling that his family managed to understand even a word that was being said to each other.

They weren't a perfect family, but they were perfect for each other. Love ran rampant in their household. Cecelia was grateful daily for the feeling of safety that came from being home in the presence of her family.

VV

Cecelia lay in bed later that night watching the clock change numbers, thoughts racing through her overactive mind. Her body was tense and her fists clenched at her sides as she fought the urge to get up and pace. 11:36.

The picture of her and Mac was propped up on her bedside table and the smiling happiness was making it impossible to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she could still see the image emblazoned on the back of her eyelids. 12:02.

12:44. She flipped from her right side to her left with an exasperated huff sprawling out in all directions in an effort to get comfortable. Her gaze landed on the oversized t-shirt lying in a heap on the floor in the small corner of her room that was designated for dirty laundry. It was one of Mac's old t-shirts that she'd taken over one day last year and had just never given back. Cecelia flipped back the other way before she gave into the sudden urge to put on the dirty shirt feeling pride over even that small victory of willpower.

Eventually she gave up trying to sleep and sat up cross-legged on the bed cradling the pictures in her hand careful not to smudge the edges or bend the fragile paper. Why the picture that was only increasing her torment paradoxically brought so much comfort should have been a mystery, but to CeCe it made complete sense. 1:15.

2:00. She gave up. Cecelia slammed her sock-less feet into a pair of tennis shoes and grabbed the sweatshirt off her chair before heading out of her bedroom and down the stairs taking them two at a time in her hustle. She scrawled a note on a post-it explaining her whereabouts that she stuck to her bedroom door in case her parents got up to investigate the sudden noise, but that was her only concession to practical thinking. The rest of her actions were being dictated purely by emotion tinted with the smallest hint of panic.

It was time. 2:05.


	14. I Just Need You

Cecelia was breathing hard by the time she'd thundered up the stairs, sprinted down the hallway, and then pounded on Mac and O.C.'s door with both fist unconcerned with the late hour and the noise she was making. In her current state of mind CeCe couldn't find it in herself to care that it was two o'clock in the morning on a night when the boys had practice the next day at six. She just didn't care. What she had to say couldn't wait a single second more much less a couple of hours or even a whole day. Surely she'd burst without telling Mac the conclusions drawn from much soul-searching. After weeks of silence, Cecelia was finally ready to talk.

Their door flung open to reveal a half-sleeping, but spitting mad O.C. looking ready to clobber whatever late night intruder was disturbing his beauty sleep.

He was still rubbing at his half-closed eyes as he threatened, "Bah just shut the hell up and go to sleep. I don't care if this is the funniest joke you've ever thought of because guess what? The last joke wasn't that funny. If you come over here one more time, I will kill you. Literally kill you."

"Should I be offended that you think I look like Bah?" Cecelia asked trying to peer around Jack's broad shoulders to see if Mac was awake and moving behind him, but she caught only a small glimpse of him before he disappeared from view, "Although he does have that tall, dark, handsome thing going on. Too bad I'm short, only a little bit dark, and more cute than handsome."

O.C. did a strange hand-flap that was apparently supposed to convey some sort of message and mumbled something that sounded like "damn women" before stumbling back to bed not even bothering to get back under the covers. Mac appeared in the doorway a second later zipping up the fly of his jeans and shoving his feet into a ratty pair of sneakers. His chest was bare and CeCe was momentarily distracted from her objective as the sight of his muscled chest made her breath catch in her throat. If she'd thought Mark was good-looking, it was nothing compared to the way Mac made her feel. In all their years of friendship Cecelia had never taken a moment to sit down and really admire his body because she'd always known that it would be crossing the line of friendship she'd so carefully constructed between them, but since they had in recent memory kissed it was only fair she should get some ogling privileges.

"CeCe, not that I mind you visiting, but couldn't you wait until morning?" Mac asked running a hand through his already messy hair. He'd been expecting her to come by eventually, but he hadn't thought it would be at two in the morning.

After twenty-two years together Mac had Cecelia pretty well pegged and he hadn't been very surprised by her avoidance of him these past few weeks. It was just how her mind worked. She needed time to process things and didn't like to rush into things without thinking them all the way through. Their decision that night had been too hastily made for Cecelia to feel comfortable with it even though at first she'd agreed. Thinking about it Mac shouldn't even be surprised that she was showing up so late. After Cecelia finally made a decision she didn't like to hesitate before setting it into action.

Now all he had to do was wait until CeCe revealed if she was still willing to give this thing between them a go or if she'd completely changed her mind and wanted to be only friends again. Either way he was determined to support her decision without pushing even if it wasn't the decision he wanted.

He watched Cecelia take a deep breath before her words started pouring out in a waterfall of confusing nonsense that always emerged when she was stressed, "Robbie, I want to be friends."

"We are friends."

"I know that, but I need us to be friends forever. I've been freaking out because I was afraid that I'd lose you if we screwed things up and I really, really don't want that. I don't think I can live without you in my life."

"CeCe I need that too."

She barely appeared to have comprehended his words because they didn't slow her down in the slightest, "I've spent these past few weeks thinking of nothing else but what the right thing for me to do is. My dad sat down with me a few nights ago on the porch and he said some things that really made sense to me, you know? He talked about how I'm fearless and how I need to make a decision because this isn't fair to you. He was right. This isn't fair to you and I'm sorry."

"It's ok, I'm fine. You don't—"

His words didn't register quickly enough because CeCe kept right on pushing through unhindered by his attempt to reason with her, "After my dad went inside I just spent hours thinking of all the stuff we've been through. The little things that make us who we are together. Our high school dances, driving licenses, the bomb pops we had every Friday afternoon during the summer, how you used to stand up for me to the girls who were mean to me in school—"

Robbie snorted in disgust over that particular memory, "They were just a bunch of bitches with too much time on their hands and a lot of jealousy. I hated them for being mean to you."

Cecelia appreciated that he was still upset over the nasty behavior bestowed on her throughout high school by girls who weren't too fond of anyone who didn't fit into their definition of a normal girl, but didn't have time to dwell on it for long before continuing her train of thought, "Do you remember when you came to visit me after the first week of college?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Why did you do it?"

Mac thought back to the weekend she was talking about and smiled at the memory. He'd known how worried the prospect of being apart made her so the first chance he'd got Mac had hightailed it up north to visit her in Duluth. Her roommate had almost fallen over in shock when the broad-shouldered hockey player came barreling in the doorway before looking around to find no Cecelia in sight. The roommate, Anna was her name if he remembered correctly, had recovered from her surprise long enough to explain that CeCe had class until one but he was welcome to wait for her in the dorm room. Mac had impatiently lain down on her bed to wait but soon the sweet smell of Cecelia filled his nostrils lulling him into the kind of sleep he hadn't experienced since their parting. He never slept well when they were away from each other which didn't make sense since they rarely slept in the same bed or even in the same house while they were home. It was phenomenon that he didn't understand, but never bothered to give much thought. It was a fact of life. The sky is blue, water freezes at 32 degrees, and Mac couldn't sleep without CeCe. It just—was.

"I wanted to see you," he finally answered unsure exactly what she wanted to hear, "And I knew you needed to see me as much as I needed to see you. That week was the longest I'd ever gone without seeing you and I didn't like it."

"That's the memory that made up my mind," Cecelia mused still barely looking at him during her pacing in the cramped hallway. If she walked back and forth anymore he was going to start getting dizzy.

"Made up your mind about what?"

"Us."

Robbie took a deep breath to brace himself for her answer and asked, "What did you decide?"

"That we're friends and I need that. I need us to be friends and I need you to always be here. I don't function very well without you."

"So we're friends?" He struggled to keep his expression even-keeled not wanting to upset her by showing how much her declaration threw him. It had been the exact opposite of what he wanted to hear, but CeCe was right. He needed her in his life just like she needed him. Maybe being just friends was safer. Yeah, safer, that was a good word. Everyone liked being safe, didn't they? Even as the logical part of his mind agreed, the rest of him couldn't help but wish that safe didn't feel so much like a rejection.

Cecelia stopped her frantic pacing and really looked at him for the first time all night, "Yeah, we're friends."

"Um, good, that's what I wanted to hear," Mac offered up still feeling a little shell-shocked and unsure of what proper etiquette demanded in such a situation.

"Do you want to know what else I found out?" she stepped toward him watching his eyes shift around looking at her nose then her forehead then her chin but never meeting her gaze.

He steeled himself again for the remainder of her discoveries not sure what could be worse than shooting him down before they had a chance to even start anything, "Sure."

"My dad said that if I stopped this before I gave it a chance I might be missing out on a really great thing."

"What if it turns out to be not so great?" Mac could've kicked himself for practically all but sending her an affirmation that her decision to be just friends was right on target.

CeCe was still standing in just once place, but her energy was wound so tight that she felt like any second it was going to release and send her bouncing all over the place in a frenzy of activity, "That's what I said, but then he said that at least I'd know we'd tried. At first I thought that was stupid advice because all I could think about was what if it doesn't work out. I didn't even stop to imagine what if it does, but then I did and suddenly things weren't so scary anymore."

Robbie cautiously looked at her uncertain of whether she was going where he thought she was with this train of thought. It was the complete opposite of where he'd thought they were going ten seconds ago, but this new direction was showing promise. "So then you decided, what?" he prompted hoping to keep her focused so she didn't start off on a whole other tangent as she was prone to doing.

"Well I didn't really decide anything right away," Cecelia mused looking lost in her own world again, "But the more I thought about it, the more I decided I was right."

"About what?" he cried out louder than he'd intended wishing she'd just get to the point and put him out of his misery.

Cecelia looked at him and the familiar fear started to creep up her spine, but she shoved it down and made a decision. With her father's words echoing in her mind she knew what had to be done. Do it like you play hockey. Pick a goal and go for it. Well, she'd picked a goal and it was Robbie. It had always been Robbie. Cecelia blocked out every negative emotion and only focused on Mac and the emotions he roused in her. A wave of feeling unlike any other she'd ever felt swept over her and before CeCe knew what she was doing she was in his arms kissing him senseless and being kissed just as senseless in return.

This wasn't the awkward first touch of lips that they'd shared before, but instead it was a full-on, tongue-tangling, heartbeat-skipping,_ I can't get enough of you_ kiss that made his head spin as if he'd had one too many shots of alcohol. She was intoxicating. Her hands were cradling his face as she kept his head tugged down to her level and his arms had slipped around her waist pulling her flush against him.

A rush of sensations exploded in his mind and he couldn't even begin to process them all at once. The silky brush of her hair on his arm as she tipped her head back to allow him better access to her mouth and the satiny feel of her lower back against the palm of his hand resting just beneath the hem of her t-shirt on bare skin. He heard a moan resonate from the back of her throat and he answered it with one of his own as her tongue swept into his mouth teasing him before she pulled her head back just long enough to fit in a sentence or two, "I decided I was right about starting something with you. It's scary and awful and wonderful and amazing all at the same time."

Cecelia hadn't planned to throw herself at him in such a fashion, but the defensive set of his shoulders and the determination in his eyes to hide any emotions had done her in. He thought she couldn't see through his behavior, but he wasn't the only one who had learned a thing or two over the course of their friendship. She'd known the instant he concluded that she was telling him they should be just friends. His eyes had darkened almost imperceptibly and suddenly he'd been all too willing to look anywhere but at her.

The fear was still there, but now it was being tempered by something else. The feeling of safety that always came from being with Mac had taken over and thrust the fear to the bottom allowing her to see clearly what had always been right in front of her nose waiting for her to wake up and smell the roses.

"I'm sorry I took so long to make a decision," she said after catching her breath without backing away from him. They stood together both her hands resting on his chest and his arms locked around her back holding her in place, "I thought I could handle it when I said yes before, but then I just couldn't."

"I know babe." Mac reached up with one of his hands to brush the hair out of her eyes and behind her ears so he could see her without any obstructions, "It scared me too. I don't want to ruin our friendship anymore than you do. I don't know what I feel for you, but I do know that I've never felt this way about any other girl."

She rested her head on his chest feeling his heart thump wildly beneath her cheek glad that she seemed to affect him just as much as he did her, "So where does this leave us?"

"Handcuffed together so you can't run away anymore without talking to me? This latest period of avoidance was long enough for me, thank you very much."

CeCe giggled at the picture his words evoked, "That might be a little drastic, but I get the point."

"Hey, you're not the one who's been being ignored," His tone was teasing, but it sent another wave of regret through Cecelia, "I think your dad was about to kick me off the team for playing so bad lately."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I was confused and I needed some time to think about things without my feelings for you getting in the way."

"Your feelings for me get in the way?" Mac's eyes lit up at the idea that her feelings were strong enough to get in the way of clear thinking.

"Don't get a big head or anything over there pretty boy."

"You think I'm pretty?"

CeCe reached out to swat him in the upper arm laughing at the way he preened over her unintentional compliment. It was comforting to regain this element of their friendship. She'd missed their banter, missed the way he made her feel when they were together, and missed the companionable silence they could sit in without it turning awkward. Mostly she'd just missed him.

It was only then that a smattering of applause broke through the companionable silence. Cecelia glanced around and only then did she notice that all of the doors in the hallway were open and nineteen hockey players had their heads poking out of the doorways watching the whole spectacle before them. Most of them looked sleep-rumpled and dazed, but all were grinning widely at the sight before them.

Her cheeks flushed a deep red, but her embarrassment eased as Mac pulled her back into the circle of his arms laughing at all the attention they were receiving.

"It's about time," O.C. voiced from the doorway closest to them looking decidedly less sleepy than he had when Cecelia had awakened him only a scant few minutes before.

Mac tried to temper the smile that spread across his face as CeCe tucked her head beneath his chin, burying her face in his chest her cheeks still tinted red in embarrassment over the unexpected attention. "Shut it O.C." Mac threatened without heat feeling reasonably sure that there was nothing in the world that could bring down his mood right now, "Go to bed guys."

The guys all groaned at being chased away from the interesting scene before them. Silky walked past Mac on his way back to his room and slapped him a high-five before ruffling CeCe's hair affectionately with his other free hand, "Treat this girl right Mac or I'll be first in line to kick your ass."

Cecelia pulled out of Mac's arms and flung both arms around Silky in an impromptu show of affection, "You're sweet."

"And very capable of killing Mac," he reiterated with a look over CeCe's head that clearly told Robbie he wasn't kidding even as he kept his tone light so as not to upset her. Cecelia had only been in his life for the past few months, but already he and the rest of the team were willing to go to bat for the girl who spent most of her time making sure they were taken care of. Now it was time for them to take care of her for a change.

"I'll take good care of her," Robbie promised solemnly another smile lighting up his face as CeCe turned back toward him and smiled that beautiful smile of hers.

She laced her fingers with his loving the feeling of his calloused palm pressed close to hers, "He's been taking care of me since I was born. He's gotten good at it by now."

Mac tugged her closer to him, just close enough to be able to smell the sweet scent that was all Cecelia. "Are you sleeping over?"

"If you want me too I will. If you don't, I can just drive home. It's not that far."

"Stay," he said, "I sleep better when you're close."

CeCe laughed at what she thought was a joke and Mac didn't bother to set her straight. It was enough that she was going to stay.

"Let's go," he urged moving toward the door that O.C. had left open in anticipation of their arrival, "Since you chose to do this at 2:30 in the morning, I only have three hours left to sleep and I'm not about to waste them standing in the hallway."

"Even if you get to stand in the hallway with me?"

"Not when we could be together in bed instead," Mac wiggled his eyebrows seductively urging her along with his hand on her back.

Cecelia leaned up on her tiptoes and placed a small, delicate kiss on corner of his lips before pulling him behind her into the room, "Ok, let's go to bed."

"Dangerous words to say to a man babe."

She looked at him over her shoulder for a long moment before answering, "I trust you."

A speech about how trusting boys even if she'd known them a long time wasn't a good idea was forthcoming until CeCe's mouth stretched into a yawn and her eyes kept blinking sleepily up at him.

"It's time for bed babe."

"I'm not tired," she argued her eyes drifting shut every few seconds before she'd force them open again, "Well maybe I'm a little sleepy."

"Cecelia Ava Brooks go get in bed," Robbie said pushing her gently toward the unmade bed. She laid down at his request and would've argued more against being tired if her eyes hadn't drifted shut within moments of hitting the soft pillow and just like that she was dead to the world.

"How does she do that?" O.C. marveled from where he'd just sat down on his bed after grabbing a drink of water from the bathroom, "I've never fallen asleep that fast in my life."

Mac sat down beside her sleeping form and brushed the stray baby hairs off her forehead and out of the way, "I have no idea. She's always been like this."

"I'll see you in the morning Mac."

"Goodnight Jack."

O.C. flipped off the lamp between their beds and collapsed facedown into his pillow with a noisy sigh before flipping to face the wall away from Mac and Cecelia. Robbie settled in more carefully than O.C. had in an effort to not disturb CeCe. Judging by the dark circles underneath her eyes she hadn't been sleeping well lately either. The dark smudges were prominent on her lightly tanned skin standing out starkly against the creaminess of her cheeks.

Out of nowhere his words to Jack and the other guys from early on in the season crossed his mind for a split second surprising him with the randomness of the thought. _Just wait guys, spend a few days with her and you won't be able to imagine your life without her in it anymore._

His words had never been truer than they had these past few weeks. Life without Cecelia had been hell. Without her he'd lost the one person in his life that he'd always counted on to be there. He's missed her incessant chatter and the way she rambled when nervous. The way she frowned at him when he said something she didn't agree with and her little nose crinkled up on the bridge. The way things were never quite the same if she wasn't there to share them.

His words to her earlier had been true. He didn't know how he felt about her, but he did know that no other girl, or person for that matter, had made him feel the way she did simply by being her. The effect she had on him was scary on one hand and oddly comforting on the other which had always been the way of their relationship. Her hold on him should've felt smothering, but instead he reveled in it.

The smallest brush of fingertips swept across his chest startling him and he looked down to find Cecelia's hand curled up in a little fist resting on his bare chest as if she was reassuring herself even in sleep that he was still there.

What she didn't know was that he was always going to be there. If this last episode had taught him anything it was that he was unwilling, or unable, to ever let her go. He'd heard her voice a similar sentiment before in relation to him and it was true for him as well. He just couldn't live without her. It was that simple. He needed her.

"Sweet dreams CeCe," he whispered brushing a kiss across her forehead before settling further down onto the bed knowing that sleep would be elusive this night.

Mac may have been imagining things, but he was almost willing to swear that her lips curved into a small smile at his words and gentle touch. Even in sleep Cecelia knew he cared.


	15. It's A Girl Thing

_Meadow567: I won't hold it against you that you sounded like Paris Hilton even though I think she may be one of the most annoying people on the planet. LOL. Thanks for the awesome review, it made me smile!_

_Killerkeanegirl: Gracias for the muchos pictures of Michael Phelps! I enjoyed them all immensely! You made those two hours extra worth it! I love talking to you over the livejournal; your comments are always fun to read. _

_Klinoa: Yay! I'm so glad you loved this chapter! Favorite chapter ever, huh? So glad I made you squeal!_

_Stacey: I love Mac too. Thanks for all the great compliments._

_TJ6: Thanks for the review!_

_Emador: What a sweet review! You're too nice! That's a compliment by the way, I love it!_

_StarrShyne: I loved all your random thoughts! Very entertaining to read! I almost feel sorry for your eventual guy who will have to read and review my stories. The poor guy won't know what to do with himself amidst all this fluff! LOL. I'm glad you love CeCe I'm actually rather fond of her too. Another long review, am I starting to rub off on you? Ooh I hope so. _

_Lia06: Indeed they are finally together! It made me happy too!_

_Racer38: I've noticed that people put a lot of "update soon" in their reviews to me. Are you all trying to tell me I'm slow? LOL. Ok I admit it, I'm slow. Really slow actually._

_B: I should be thanking you for wanting me to update so fast. I appreciate the time you (and everyone else) take to review my story! I love getting all the reviews. _

_TheBlackSoul: I'm so, so glad you liked the chapters! I loved your review by the way, very sweet. I like reading longer chapters so I try to keep mine at least semi-longish because I can't expect other people to do it if I don't. Thanks again!_

_Butterflykisses71: What a nice review! Thank you so much! I'm glad that you thought at first she was going to say just friends, that's what I wanted you (and Mac of course) to think. _

_Miraclegirl: I think you need to cut back on the caffeine. LOL. I could almost audibly hear the caffeine-induced rambling. Gracias for the review though! And I will try my very hardest to update fast enough for you. _

_Marina LaLa: I'm really glad you love my story. It's always nice to feel loved. Anyway about your story while we're here, I think you did a great job reworking your story. Much more realistic. I'm glad you didn't get pissed at me for making suggestions the first time around and then just give up on it because just like I thought it had a lot of potential. _

_Wakingbear: Thanks for the review! _

**VV**

Cecelia walked out onto the empty ice looking up into the Harvard stands that would soon be full of people with more than a touch of envy. A large part of her was dying to lace up her skates and play with the boys that had become so important to her. It was frustrating feeling like she was part of the team without actually being able to participate with them as a team.

More and more lately the urge to put on a USA jersey had been bugging her. She knew it was impossible and always had, but that didn't make it any easier to sit on the sidelines when all she wanted to do was play.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the ice behind her. She relaxed almost instantly as a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist from the back. Her head dropped backward to rest on the broad shoulder without hesitation.

"How did you know I was out here?"

Mac brushed a kiss across her temple before tightening his arms around her protectively, "I just guessed. Don't think I haven't noticed the longing glances you've been sending our way lately. Hockey fever?"

"I just want to play," she admitted in a whisper feeling ashamed that she was being such a baby about it, "I knew I couldn't play, but I never thought it would bug me so much."

"You deserve to play babe, you know it and I know it. Hell, every guy on the team probably knows it too."

"They deserve it too. I'm so glad that you guys are getting this chance. I really am," She wrapped her arms around her waist to ward off the chill resting them on top of his, "It's just hard."

"I know," Mac breathed out after a few seconds spent trying to come up with words of encouragement that would make this moment easier with little success. Instead of blurting out more meaningless words he just held her content that for now it was enough.

Both had been studiously avoiding any discussion of what they meant to each other ever since the night Cecelia had woken him up at two in the morning to declare her intentions toward him. They were definitely more than friends, but no labels had been applied to define exactly what they were. He didn't want to scare her off again by rushing her into something that was still potentially looming big and scary on the horizon for her. It had taken her weeks to just reconcile herself with the idea that they could be more than friends and he didn't even have the heart to consider how long it would be before she was ready to admit they were in something even resembling a committed steady relationship.

Luckily time was the one thing he had in spades. There was no rush for labels. For now he had CeCe and that was all he needed.

"I have to get down to the locker room. Are you going to be ok?"

CeCe shifted around in the circle of his arms so she was facing him. Her hands rested flat on his chest as she leaned back just enough to make eye contact, "I'll be fine. I was just having one of those weird emotional reactions that us girls are famous for. You don't have to worry about me, I'm ok. I probably won't be down on the bench during the game though so in case I don't see you again before the game you better kick some Harvard ass tonight."

"With pleasure babe," His smile was bright enough to power a small solar plant and Cecelia couldn't resist stretching up onto her tiptoes to place a small kiss on his grinning mouth.

His arms tightened around her again to keep her close when she would have backed away, "Hey now, that wasn't a very inspiring good luck kiss. How about we try that again?"

She pretended to think it over before she let out a long-suffering sigh, "Well I suppose I have to do my part to help the United States hockey team win a gold medal. If that means kissing you again than I guess it's my patriotic duty to do so."

"Don't feel obligated or anything," Robbie worked out in between chuckles, "So what do you usually do? Just close your eyes and think of America?"

Her eyes were sparkling with amusement, but they darkened as she reached up with one hand to pull his head down toward her. "It's no obligation," she whispered as his mouth halted just scant millimeters from hers, "Definitely not an obligation at all."

"Good," he whispered back not making any further moves to bring their lips together again waiting for her to make the next move.

With that she stretched up on her tiptoes again to close the remaining distance between their mouths. Just like the first time it was amazing. Full of heat. Intense. No matter how innocent their kisses started out it was surprisingly difficult to keep them at that level. It was never long before Mac's hand slipped ever so slightly up the back of CeCe's t-shirt to rest on the bare skin of her lower back or Cecelia was arching closer to press her body more fully against his. The red hot burning flames of passion that had been missing with Mark were out in full force anytime Mac so much as looked her way.

It was scary, but exhilarating. The power he held over her would have been terrifying if she didn't hold a similar power over him.

Cecelia leaned back her chest heaving after that last kiss, "You should probably go now."

His forehead rested against hers for a minute while he caught his breath. When he spoke his voice was rough around the edges, but still tender, "You're right. I should go."

Seconds later she felt compelled to point out, "You're not going very fast."

"Yes I am. Give me a minute. You can't just kiss me like that and than expect me to walk around in this state."

"Why not?"

Mac groaned quietly and kissed her cheek before smiling at her, "If you don't know, I'm sure not going to tell you."

Her brow furrowed as she considered his words before the light went on in her brain, "Oh."

"Yeah oh."

Her gaze traveled south for a minute before she looked back up at him with a question in her gaze, "You mean?"

"Yeah."

CeCe looked around the still deserted rink before glancing back at up at him, "I do _that _to you?"

"Just by looking at me sometimes," he confirmed not sure if the confession was going to please her or freak her out.

"How long?"

"How long what?"

Her cheeks were flaming by that point and she leaned closer to whisper her question in case by chance one of the boys happened to be lurking somewhere out of sight but still in hearing range. An improbability, but it never hurt to be careful. "How long have I made you feel, well, like that?"

"Since I was fourteen," Mac replied in a matter of fact fashion still unsure what her reaction to his answer would be, but very sure of his answer.

"Fourteen? You thought of me like this at fourteen?" Her tone conveyed her shock clearly enough that it wasn't even necessary to look at her expression to judge what she was thinking. Apparently she hadn't been thinking of him like that at fourteen.

"Not exactly like this, but close I guess. You wore a bikini top and denim shorts once while mowing the lawn and I couldn't get that image of you out of my head for years."

He finally braved a peek at her expression and just as he expected a slightly horrified look was covering her face. Oh crap now he had to fix this too. Just when things were going well he had to go and screw things up. Just great.

"Look CeCe, I shouldn't have said anything. It's just you asked and I wasn't thinking. I won't do it again."

When he would've kept apologizing and rationalizing his behavior she placed another light kiss on his lips silencing his waterfall of words. "Don't be sorry. I like that I make you feel this way. It's a good feeling. Don't ever be afraid to tell me things."

"Ok I'm going for real now," he said smoothing his hand up and down her back relieved that his words hadn't upset her. She never failed to surprise him. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she'd throw him a curve ball like this that promised him life with her would never be boring.

"Good luck tonight."

He nodded to acknowledge her words and turned to head back down the long hallway leading toward the visitors' locker room. She watched him walk away keeping her arms wrapped around herself wishing that it was still his arms warming her.

"You scare me Robbie McClanahan," Cecelia whispered into the empty air of the hockey rink before starting toward the stairs that would lead her up to the concession area where hopefully a piping hot piece of pepperoni pizza was awaiting her.

**VV**

Two hours later CeCe descended back down the stairs and found her gaze caught by a statuesque golden-haired brunette sitting in the third row wearing a too large hockey jersey that said Craig on the back. Was this the infamous Mandy she'd heard so much about?

CeCe crept a bit closer trying to catch a better glimpse of her from the side, but eventually gave up and just went forward to introduce herself.

She tapped the girl on the shoulder and as she turned began to speak, "Hi. I'm Cecelia Brooks, you can call me CeCe though everybody else does. I'm going to feel really stupid if you're not who I think you are, but are you Mandy? Jimmy Craig's Mandy?"

"Well I'm Mandy," the girl replied with a short tinkling laugh, "And Jimmy's my boyfriend so I suppose you could call me Jimmy's Mandy."

"Oh thank God," Cecelia breathed out flopping down to sit next to the good-natured brunette, "I was so afraid I was accosting some stranger who would think I was insane. Although really, what's to say you don't think I'm insane? I kind of came out of nowhere there."

Mandy laughed again at the rambling speech, "I don't think you're insane. I'm actually really glad you found me. I was hoping I'd get to meet you. Jimmy talks about you all the time when he calls."

Cecelia took a minute to look, really look, at Mandy. She was attractive, but not in a classically pretty way. Her mouth was just a tad too wide for her face and her frame was slim and almost boyish, but her eyes were amazing. They were huge in her guileless face and looked like twin sapphires peering out from underneath perfectly arched eyebrows. Jimmy's words came back to her as she studied the girl. _There's just something about her. I love the way her eyes light up when she sees me even if it's only been five minutes and the way she has a smile that's just for me. That's what makes her beautiful to me. _

She watched as the players took the ice and Jimmy was right. Mandy did have a smile that was reserved strictly for him. When he hit the ice her features positively lit up with excitement and she was out of her seat in seconds waving wildly as he searched the stands for a glimpse of her.

When his eyes finally focused in on her she blew him kiss after kiss and her eyes filled with tears at the mere sight of him.

"You miss him a lot don't you?"

Mandy finally took her eyes off Jimmy and focused her attention back on CeCe, "Yeah I do. We've been together three years. I was so glad when he got a spot on the team, but I never realized how hard it would be to be separated from him."

"At least you get to be with your guy during all this training," Mandy observed enviously with another look down at Jimmy on the ice, "I wish I could be there with him through this."

Cecelia looked at her in shock, surprised that Jimmy would have discussed her love life with anyone even if that person was his very serious girlfriend, "How did you know about Mac?"

"Mac? Is that number 24's name?"

"Yeah that's Robbie McClanahan. Everyone but his mother and sometimes me calls him Mac. Did Jimmy tell you about Mac and me?"

"Oh no," Mandy hastened to reassure her recognizing that the idea of her love life being discussed to someone she didn't even know perturbed CeCe a little bit, "I just guessed. You should've seen your face when he came out on the ice. You weren't even really watching, but you must've caught a glimpse of him from the corner of your eye or something because all of a sudden your face just lit up like a Christmas tree. I just assumed that you two had a thing."

"You're right. We do. Have a thing that is," CeCe corrected, "Or at least we do now. It's new. He's been my best friend since we were in diapers and all of a sudden instead of just being my buddy Mac, he's _Mac._ You know?"

"Do I ever," Mandy commiserated, "I met Jimmy when I was still dating O.C. Did you know that?"

Cecelia sucked in a quick breath at the revelation, "No I didn't. Jimmy never said a word. You dated O.C.?"

"Not seriously, but just long enough to fall in with his crowd. After we broke up I ended up just sticking around. By that point I was friends with his friends and vice versa. Jimmy was always just that sweet guy who was kind of quiet and kept to himself. There was something about him though that I couldn't shake off. One day we went to get coffee together and he kissed me. I'd been talking about my philosophy and all of a sudden he just grabbed my shoulders and kissed me. I was so shocked that I ran away and didn't talk to him for weeks afterward. I don't handle surprises very well."

"You're preaching to the choir sister," Cecelia muttered causing Mandy to smile before continuing on with her story.

"Eventually Jimmy cornered me and forced me to sit down and talk things out with him. He admitted that he'd liked me since the very first time he'd met me but then I'd been dating one of his best friends and after that he just couldn't work up the nerve to do anything about it after O.C. and I broke up. I still wasn't sure how I felt so I told him I only liked him as a friend."

"Really?"

"Yep, so after that Jimmy just sort of left me alone, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that maybe I liked him too. He was the first boy who ever bothered to listen, really listen, to the things I said. Finally it was like a light bulb went off in my brain, suddenly it was so obvious to me that I liked him and that I had for a long time. I'd just been too stubborn to see it. We've been together ever since."

"I think we're going to get along really well," Cecelia said after a minute sharing a friendly smile with Mandy as the game got underway.

They spent the next two hours screaming their lungs out. Mandy burying her head in her hands every time things got too intense and CeCe cursing at the top of her lungs when things didn't go as she wanted them too.

"Put in the Coneheads," she yelled at her dad hoping that he'd be able to pick out her voice from the hundreds of others screaming at the same time. To her satisfaction she saw him signal to Coach Patrick and only seconds later Buzzy, Pav, and Bah were heading out onto the ice with the puck in their possession.

Her fist pumped in the air after they scored a mere few seconds after being put in. "Yes!" she screamed watching them pull out of the tie and into the lead, "Those are my boys!"

She slapped a high-five with Mandy before returning her attention to the game.

Minutes later Mandy's head was once again buried in the palms of her hands. "If you think this is intense," Cecelia pointed out, "Just wait till the Olympics. That's going to be really crazy."

Her newfound friend's expression fell slightly at the mention of the Olympics in February and the next words out of her mouth came as a complete shock, "I can't go."

"Why not?" Cecelia practically squealed unable to believe that the words could be uttered in jest much less in complete seriousness, "You can't miss the Olympics!"

"I don't have the money for a hotel room or tickets," Mandy admitted looking more than a little ashamed, "I'm paying my own college tuition and I don't have enough extra cash right now to splurge like that."

"You have to go," CeCe argued, "Jimmy needs you to be there."

"I know, but I just can't."

Cecelia thought about it for a minute before her eyes lit up at her thoughts, "Yes you can."

Mandy frowned at her insistence, "No. I can't."

"No wait; just listen to me for a second. I have extra tickets to all the games so that problem is solved."

"I still can't afford a hotel room. Prices will be jacked up so high because of the Olympics that I won't even be able to afford a room at the Super 8."

"I've got that problem worked out too. I have a hotel room all to myself while we're in Lake Placid. You could share with me. I'm the only girl going so I have a room with two beds but there's only one of me. It's the perfect solution. You don't have to spend a dime."

"I can't do that."

"Sure you can. Jimmy needs you there and I'll be bored by myself anyway. This way you'll solve both of those problems at once."

"But you don't even know me," Mandy offered up another half-hearted argument, but CeCe could tell that she was starting to cave.

"You don't know me either," Cecelia pointed out, "We'll get to know each other. Jimmy would never forgive either of us if there was a way for you to come and we ignored it. Come on, it'll be fun. Two girls hitting the Olympics together looking for a little fun and love in the snow."

"Except we both have boys."

"Well then we won't have to look far, will we?"

Mandy shyly glanced at CeCe before breaking into that huge smile of hers, "Ok. I'll do it."

Cecelia impulsively swung her arms around Mandy and hugged the girl who was still looking shell-shocked by CeCe's steam-roller technique of getting what she wanted. "You won't regret this, I swear it."

"Jimmy was right about you."

"What?"

"Jimmy said that you always get what you want sooner or later."

"What's wrong with that?" Cecelia smiled not offended in the slightest, "Especially if by getting what I want, I'm helping you get what you want. I'd say we just helped each other out tremendously."

The game ended a scant few minutes later and CeCe grabbed Mandy's hand so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd, "Come on, the locker room is this way."

"The _what_?"

"The locker room, you want to see Jimmy don't you?"

"Of course I do," Mandy said still looking uneasy at the thought of walking into a locker room full of hockey players, "Are we even allowed in there?"

Cecelia shrugged in response to her question, "Probably not technically, but being the coach's daughters comes in handy every once in a while. Don't worry if he yells at anyone it'll be me not you."

"Are you sure?"

"Come on," CeCe urged tugging a little more insistently on Mandy's arm, "We'll give them enough time to have their after game pep talk, get changed, and then we'll bust in there."

Mandy looked unsure for approximately a second more before her mouth tugged up a little evilly at the corners, "Do you think maybe we could get in there before they have a chance to get completely decent? I may be taken, but I'm not blind. Team USA is a good-looking bunch of guys."

"A girl after my own heart," she declared laughing at the wild streak Mandy hid so well under that calm sweet demeanor, "You and I are going to have fun together. I can already tell."

They shared another glance and broke into giggles again. Cecelia was amazed by the feeling of friendly companionship that swept over her as they periodically broke into fits of laughter again at their shared dirty thoughts about a team of hockey players. Through all her years in high school and even college she'd never had many close girl friends to hang out with. Boys had always been easier to relate to. They didn't think she was strange or wonder why she didn't spend more time doing her hair and make-up.

So far Mandy hadn't sent her even one of the looks CeCe had grown so familiar with over the course of her life. The looks from girls that just shouted _I feel sorry for you._ It was a refreshing change. Mac was her best friend, but somehow it wasn't the same as having the kind of friendship that other girls shared together. She couldn't discuss girl things with Mac. He didn't want to hear about her period or what a pain boobs could be. She wanted one of those friends.

"Is it time yet?"

The question intruded into Cecelia's thoughts and her head snapped up at Mandy's words, "What was that?"

"I was just wondering how much longer we had to wait."

CeCe checked the clock on the wall and shrugged, "We can probably go in now. They should be mostly decent by now."

"It's the mostly I'm looking forward too."

"I'm telling Jimmy," she teased with a wink in Mandy's direction.

The other girl shrugged her slight shoulders, "Then I'll just have to tell Mac it was all your idea."

"He'll probably believe you too," CeCe admitted with a grin, "You look all sweet and innocent. No one will ever think that you're hiding such dirty thoughts in there. Me on the other hand no one will think twice about."

She finished the sentence as she pushed open the locker room door both of the girls tumbling through the door in a whirlwind of amused laughter.

Jimmy was at Mandy's side in a minute sweeping her up and away from CeCe. She wandered around the locker room stopping every so often to congratulate the guys on a job well done before finally arriving at her original destination.

Mac was just finishing dressing when Cecelia arrived and he patted the bench next to him in a signal for her to sit. She sat down and brought her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bench as he threw on a shirt and turned to face her, "What was all the laughter about?"

"Um, nothing really."

He didn't look convinced, but he didn't bother to press her for another answer. CeCe wrapped her arms around his neck and as she hugged him her eyes met Mandy's from across the room and both girls grinned openly at their shared joke.

"Now what are you smiling about?" Mac asked as he pulled back staring at her suspiciously aware that anytime Cecelia was so happy for no reason it usually signaled trouble.

"It's a girl thing," she replied grinning even wider at her explanation. It was most definitely a girl thing.


	16. Who Doesn't Love Go Fish?

"Do you have any eights?"

"Go fish."

She peered over the tops of her cards a bit evilly and grinned, "Do you have any twos over there Jackie boy?"

"Dammit! This game sucks." Almost as an afterthought he looked up at her his frown firmly in place and added in all seriousness, "I hate you."

Cecelia almost laughed aloud at O.C.'s disgruntled expression but instead attempted a shrug which was difficult due to the position she was laying in. She was currently lying on her back on Jack's bed with her head and shoulders hanging upside down off the bed. Her hands held a fan of cards in front of her face. She gathered up all four suits of twos and put them next to the other piles she'd collected over the course of their heated game of Go Fish. Her seven piles seemed large compared to O.C.'s pitiful two.

"Any fives?"

She tossed over the lone five in her pile before continuing on with the game, "Do you have any fours?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said I hated you," Jack muttered handing over the two fours CeCe needed to have another group.

"This is fun," She said with a gleeful smile. Against his own will O.C. felt his mouth tug up into a smile in return. It was hard to resist that grin of hers. She was like a little kid sometimes, all smiles and joy.

He tried to hide the amusement written all over his face as they resumed play and didn't find it hard a few plays later when once again she fleeced away more cards to give herself a whopping nine piles to his two. "Don't you think your dad needs your help with something? There's got to be something he needs you to do," O.C. said with a hopeful expression, "I'm sick of playing games with you."

"No, you're sick of losing to me," Cecelia pointed out sagely before telling him to Go Fish again after he asked for queens, "You'd be just fine if you were winning. And no, I don't think my dad needs my help. He'll send someone to get me if he does."

"It's amazing isn't it?" Mac asked Buzzy as they watched the two bicker back and forth over their lively game of Go Fish, "They can do this for hours on end. CeCe wins a game, Jack curses, she laughs, he challenges her to a rematch, she laughs some more, and they go round and round for hours. It's a vicious cycle."

"You're a sucker for punishment," Buzz teased clapping O.C. on the shoulder in commiseration as Cecelia took the last of his cards and decisively beat him once again, "You think you'd give up after a while."

"I'll win one of these days."

CeCe laughed out loud at his fierce determination to bring her down, "Yeah ok Jackie, we'll see about that."

"Stop calling me Jackie," he warned with a scowl.

"That's what you get for instructing all the boys to call me Misty last week," she shot back sticking her tongue out at him returning his scowl just as sternly, "You stop the ridiculous nicknames and I'll stop emasculating you."

"We're just trying to find a good nickname for you."

His explanation left a little to be desired but Cecelia didn't argue with him anymore on the subject realizing that it was a lost cause to try and talk any of the boys out of calling her the silly names they came up with in their quest for the perfect nickname. She'd originally thought that if she just stuck it out long enough they'd get bored all on their own and quit with the strange names, but so far their interest in them hadn't waned over the past few months.

Even Mac who usually had a stronger sense of self-preservation had joined in on the fun tossing out random names when they were together in an effort to find one that would stick.

"Misty was cute," Robbie protested laughing a little at the look she leveled his way, "Personally I liked it."

"Personally I'd like to see you all get a swift kick to the balls, but I guess we can't have everything we want."

"That girl of yours is violent," O.C. said to Mac as if CeCe wasn't even in the room, "You should really learn to control her better."

Buzz hid a smile at the indignant look that spread across the aforementioned girl's face, "I'd like to see you try and control anything CeCe does. Mac was smart enough to give up on that years ago. Have you ever heard the phrase pissing into the wind?"

"Jeez guys don't hold back, tell me how you really feel."

All three laughed at her lifted eyebrow which only enhanced her disgust over their conversation. Robbie grinned at her and winked, "Babe we are holding back. You're a formidable force to be reckoned with. I wouldn't dare try to control you. You'd flay me alive."

She allowed Mac to pull her up and out of the contorted position she'd found herself in to instead sit sideways across his lap. Her arms looped casually across his shoulders and she dropped her annoyed pretense within seconds of being in such close physical proximity to him. Even if this relationship wasn't completely comfortable yet, mostly because of its newness, there were still these little moments that made her heart flutter just the teensiest bit deep down in her chest.

The boys continued their discussion without her their words and laughter floating around her and made a smile dance across her mouth at the pure happiness she found in their company. Coming into this CeCe hadn't imagined anything even close to what had come about. She'd expected to form casual friendships with the boys and the idea of starting something with Mac when it occasionally crossed her mind before had always been strictly shoved to the background. Instead here she was definitely starting something with Mac and now she had a group of boys who felt like family; an annoying, messy, loud, outspoken, sometimes crude family, but a family nonetheless.

"What are you thinking about Shrimp?"

O.C. let out a laugh at Buzz's term of endearment for Cecelia, "If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black I don't know what is."

The tips of Buzzy's ears turned a deep red as he leveled a glare at O.C., but was saved from making a reply by Cecelia reaching out to smack him on the upper arm, "Be nice to him."

"You're letting a girl fight your battles now?"

Buzz shrugged, "It amuses me to watch you get put in your place by a girl."

"I love how you say that like being a girl is a bad thing." CeCe rolled her eyes as all three boys just laughed at her.

"It's not a bad thing, just funny. You're the only one here who he actually listens to. Mostly because he's scared of you."

"I'm not scared of her," O.C. began before both boys shot him disbelieving looks and after a second or two of contemplation he shrugged, "Ok, I'm a little scared of her."

His confession sent a fresh round of amusement through the boys and Cecelia hopped up off of Mac's lap after sending them all another mock disgusted look, "I think I'll go see if my dad needs me for anything since I'm obviously not wanted here."

Her words had little effect on the still laughing boys although Buzzy and O.C. waved goodbye and Mac stood up to follow her out into the hallway unwilling to let her leave without a proper goodbye. He half shut the door behind them and leaned against the wall watching her with an unreadable gaze. Their relationship, or whatever they were calling it these days, was awkward at times and downright confusing at others but somehow it always felt right, like it fit.

An imperceptible shift in his gaze had CeCe taking a small hesitant step in his direction followed by another as his mouth tugged up slightly at the corners.

Words were unnecessary as she willingly took the steps that put her smack dab in front of him standing between his legs. His hands came up to casually rest splayed across her hips, his thumbs drawing small circle on the exposed skin of her hip bone peeking out from beneath her t-shirt. Without thinking she leaned in closer allowing him to catch her lips with his a sigh escaping softly from her lips at the contact.

A minute later panting slightly she arched back enough to break contact without leaving the shelter of his arms. Their foreheads rested against each other as both fought to slow their breathing and calm their racing hearts.

"We have really got to stop doing this in public areas."

Mac let out a short rough laugh before pressing a kiss to her forehead and then her temple guiding her backwards away from his body and releasing his grip on her hips, "But it's so much fun."

"But it's going to get us into trouble if we don't knock it off. My dad may be okay with the idea of us being together in theory, but he's not going to like it if he's constantly running into us groping in the hallway."

"I never grope," Robbie replied trying his best to look affronted, "I do believe that's you groping me."

His light-hearted attempt at an argument made her smile again before she backed another couple of steps away from him leaving at least two feet of charged air between them knowing from previous experience that only physical space would keep them from succumbing to their more, shall we say, carnal urges to be physically close to each other.

"Paint the picture however you want Mac, it won't change the facts."

Cecelia watched Mac's face break out into a grin as he laughed at her assertion. "You better get back in there with the boys, they'll be wondering where you went."

Without waiting for him to say anything further knowing that if she didn't leave soon, she might never leave at all, CeCe dropped another quick kiss on his lips and made her way down the hallway glancing only once back over her shoulder in his direction.

Mac watched her turn the corner her slim body disappearing from view the only remaining evidence of her presence a slight vanilla tinged scent to the air. He breathed deep once pulling the scent into his lungs feeling connected with Cecelia for a spontaneous instant before the scent faded.

His heart was still racing, but this time it wasn't from a kiss or even just her touch, this time it was because he'd just realized how far his world had narrowed to revolve around one petite brunette.

He ran his fingers roughly through his dark hair and expelled a long breath leaning back against the wall closing his eyes as he contemplated how thoroughly she'd consumed him with such little effort.

Perhaps it was just his imagination working overtime in an effort to toss his already fragile mental health right off the cliff of sanity, but suddenly the subtle scent of vanilla once again wafted by his nose, but when he opened his eyes Mac found the hallway just as empty as it had been only seconds before.

VV

Herb glanced up as his daughter bounced into his office and struck a small pose in the doorway with her hands on her slim hips, "Daddy the boys are being mean to me again."

Her whiny tone was so reminiscent of her five year old self that both father and daughter smiled at the reminder before she began walking towards him not noticing the sandy-haired boy watching their interactions from his position leaning against the wall. The boy pushed himself off the wall with the heel of his hand and ambled in their direction waiting for Herb to draw CeCe's attention to him.

Cecelia noticed her father's gaze focusing on something beyond her right shoulder and turned around expecting to find anyone but the boy who was now only a mere foot and a half away.

The air in her lungs whooshed out in one fell swoop causing a curious tightening to take place in her chest and a severe loss of breath that almost suffocated her. She could only guess that this was a common feeling when coming face to face with the only other boy she'd ever had a real relationship with. The one boy she'd ever slept with.

Herb apparently didn't notice the sudden tension pervading the room, "Cecelia, you know Timmy of course."

"Yeah," she forced out as air finally reentered her lungs, "I know him."

With that she took the necessary steps allowing herself to fall into the familiar pair of arms. She felt his arms tighten around her waist as her feet rose off the floor until only the tips of her toes could make contact with the floor and her right hand tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. He set her back down after a second, or maybe longer, she wasn't quite sure and both took a small step back assessing each other with their eyes.

His hair was shorter than when she'd last seen him, but that grin was still the same. It made her stomach dip and twist just like it always had.

Words that usually came so easily had once again failed her in a crucial moment. Somehow the only word that managed to work its way past her lips and into the air between them was a small and simple, "Hey."

He laughed and she watched as his whole body relaxed from the release of tension.

"Hey."


	17. There's Something About A Sidewalk

"So what's up with this Harrer guy?"

Phil Verchota glanced up just long enough to answer, "He's a hockey player from the U," before returning his attention to the brightly lit game show he'd been watching on TV trying his hardest to ignore the pushy hockey player stationed directly to his left although it was looking more and more like a lost cause.

"What else?"

"Well, he's blonde and super cute!" Verchota's voice pitched a little higher at the end as he exaggeratedly batted his eyelashes and pressed a fluttering hand to his chest doing a dead-on imitation of his younger sister who seemed to make it her mission in life to constantly be in a state of girlish hysterics along with her equally annoying other little friends.

"You moron," O.C. blew out a breath in exasperation not used to having what he considered rather serious questions ignored, "I was just wondering what was up with the serious animosity radiating off Mac the minute Harrer hit the ice."

"You can't tell me you're happy about Herb bringing in a new player like this, not when even more of us are set to be sent home as it is."

"Oh come on man, it was more than that and you know it."

Verchota picked up the remote and muted his show after realizing that this was one conversation he wasn't going to get out of, "Why don't you ask Mac about it?"

"I did."

"And?"

"And he kicked me out of the room." O.C. grinned a bit at the memory before turning his full attention back to the blonde Minnesotan. "Come on, you can tell me. I won't tell him it was you."

"I don't care if he knows who told you," Verchota argued, "I'm just not sure it's my place to say anything not to mention that everything I say will be based completely on speculation and not fact."

"Speculate away."

"Fine," He took a deep breath before spitting out the story as quickly as he could hoping that CeCe would never find about this conversation because he was pretty sure he wouldn't live to ever tell it again. "Timmy dated Cecelia last year."

"That's what has Mac pissed off?"

Verchota felt heat spread up his neck before it stained his cheeks a bright cherry red, "Not exactly. From what Tim said about their relationship, it was pretty apparent that they weren't just exchanging chaste kisses at the end of their dates. Mac just happened to catch a few of those particular conversations. Apparently it didn't sit well with him."

O.C. winced visibly, "Ouch. It's never good to hear about the guy who's banging your girl."

"Who's banging who?"

Both boys looked up to see Pav leaning on the doorjamb his thumbs hooked in the front pockets of his jeans, head cocked in interest.

"I was just passing through, but this sounds like a conversation I should be a part of."

"Timmy's banging CeCe," O.C. announced casually as if he were merely telling Pav that the weather outside was sunny and warm with a slight breeze.

Verchota choked on a laugh before correcting, "Was banging her that is."

The Boston hockey player merely waved a dismissive hand, "Same difference."

"Ok maybe this isn't the kind of conversation I want to be a part of."

"Too late to run off and pretend you weren't here now."

Pav grimaced, "This is one of those if you go down we all go down kind of things isn't it?"

The other two boys nodded solemnly leading Pav's expression to fall further before he sighed, "Let's just keep this conversation between the three of us all right? The way I see it one way or the other someone is going to get pissed at us for this if they find out that we've been discussing CeCe's sexual history with Timmy or her current one with Mac."

"Mac and CeCe aren't having sex."

Verchota and Pav looked at each other first before craning their heads to look over at O.C. who was perched on the window sill. "Huh?"

"Well they're not."

"And how do you know?"

"We share a room; I think I'd know if they were."

"No you wouldn't."

"They're not doing it at her house, even Mac isn't dumb enough to try that one with Herb in the house, and they're definitely not doing it in our room so it's pretty safe to assume that they're not having sex at all. Plus if Mac was getting that much action I think we'd all know."

"This conversation is really screwed up I hope you both know that," Pav cut in with a shake of his head looking almost pained by the latest turn in their talk.

The conversation might have continued except for the sudden flurry of activity in the hallway. As they watched through the doorway Mac stormed past first a stony expression chiseled unto his face followed closely behind by a thoroughly enraged CeCe who was being forced to jog in order to keep up with his much larger strides.

Her dark hair was pulled back from her face in pony tail that bounced behind her as she trailed him. Occasionally a curse word or two would slip from her lips before she'd clamped her mouth shut in a visible attempt to stay calm.

"Damn it Mac, wait up. You know I can't keep up with you. Can we just talk about this?"

He spun around and stepped close enough that she was forced to tip her head back to maintain eye contact, "Does it look like I want you to keep up with me right now? And talk about what exactly? All I want is some peace and quiet so I can think instead of being forced to talk about my feelings with you like a girl."

With that he spun around again stalking off leaving CeCe to stand there agape wondering exactly when he'd gotten the upper hand in their argument. She stamped her foot once in a show of anger before twirling in the other direction looking directly through the doorway to where all three boys stood unabashedly watching the display that had just been put on before them.

"Not a word," she warned with a dangerous glint in her eye before shouting down the hallway Mac had just disappeared down, "And talking about your feelings doesn't mean you're a girl it just means you're in touch with your emotions!"

A few seconds later they heard a slam as Cecelia shoved her way through hallway door and kicked it shut behind her leaving only silence behind her.

"That girl is scary."

Pav and O.C. looked at Verchota before mutely nodding their agreement.

VV

"Are you planning to avoid Mac forever?"

Cecelia swung her dark gaze Buzz's way before pointedly redirecting her gaze back out the window without saying a word.

"You do realize you have nothing to be mad at me for, right?"

Those dark eyes once again pierced him with their intensity, "Yes."

Buzzy just sat there patiently until the furious light behind her eyes dimmed down leaving her looking considerably less hostile and defensive and more like a little girl who didn't know what to do.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been a bitch to you just because I'm in a bad mood."

"So what exactly did Mac do this time that's got you all worked up?"

She blew out a quick breath and scowled, "Nothing."

"Um, ok?" Buzz choked trying to stifle the chuckle that rose up in his throat at her obvious displeasure over Mac's apparent blamelessness.

"This time it was all me."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Why else do you think I'm here?"

As her tone lapsed back into hostile territory Buzz smiled and calmly tipped his head to the side to regard the tense line of her shoulders and clasped hands, "Ah, the bitch has returned I see."

Her shoulders dropped down as the tension eased, "I'm doing it again, I'm sorry."

"How about you tell me what's up and then we'll figure out the best way to make it better."

"I'm horrible at this whole girlfriend thing Buzzy. Every time I turn around I'm doing something wrong and I have no one to blame most of the time except myself. First I can't even decide if I should do the girlfriend thing at all and then when I finally make a decision the first thing I do is force my new boyfriend to discuss my previous boyfriend whom I had sex with repeatedly before becoming the girlfriend of the aforementioned new boyfriend."

If Buzzy had been into showing physical signs of confusion he might've scratched his head right about now or perhaps just gone cross-eyed from trying to wrap his mind around Cecelia's circular and somewhat twisted sense of logic. Plus the girl had a serious problem with run-on sentences that left him feeling slightly dizzy from trying to follow her train of thought.

"All I understood from that was girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, and then sex. And that last thing? I so don't need to know anything about it."

CeCe let out a small giggle at the pained look covering her friend's face. "Was that a line we just crossed there?"

"A big one," he confirmed grinning a little at the brief happy look that had crossed his friend's face, "So leaving out any explicit sex talk, what happened with you and Mac?"

"I talked about Timmy with him," she explained before sheepishly adding, "Against his will."

Buzz let out a low whistle, "No offense, but what the hell were you thinking? No guy wants to hear about the other guys his girlfriend has had relations with."

She shrugged, "Isn't honesty the best policy? And for the record it was just a guy, not guys."

He flinched over Cecelia bringing up her sex life again in a way that wasn't completely hypothetical before continuing, "Only if he'd asked about it and actually wanted to discuss it, otherwise ex-boyfriends and your past sex life are off limits."

"Is that some kind of guy code?"

"No that's called don't piss off your boyfriend."

"A subtle difference," CeCe mused with a small grin, "You'd think after all these years of being surrounded by boys I would understand the many complexities of the male mind."

"We're not complex so much as we're big babies," Buzzy corrected, "We enjoy the simple things in life; eating, sleeping, and girlfriends who keep their sexual pasts to themselves so we don't have to discuss ours in turn."

"Oops."

His eyes swung instantly back to her face, "You asked about his old girlfriends?"

"Asked, demanded, it's all the same thing really."

"Were you trying to pick a fight or just being really obtuse?"

"By that point I was picking a fight," she admitted weakly with another shrug, "What can I say? I was pissed off."

"And you said what exactly?"

"I may have implied that he had no reason to be upset with me for sleeping with one person when he'd whored himself out to half the female population in the state."

"May have or did, CeCe?"

"Um, did."

Buzzy shook his head in disbelief, "Did it ever occur to you that he was upset not because you'd slept with someone before dating him, but because you were forcing him to talk about it?"

"Well I wasn't sure he knew. It's not like I'd told him about it before," CeCe defended hotly, "I didn't want him to find out from someone else and get mad at me for keeping secrets or misconstrue the situation for something it wasn't. We've had that fight once before, I didn't want a repeat. The first time was traumatic enough, thank you very much."

"He knew and he definitely didn't need a reminder. I think under the circumstances he's been remarkably level-headed about the whole thing. No punches have been thrown, no name-calling has ensued, and so far Mac hasn't even said one bad thing about Timmy being brought in so late even though everyone else had a hell of a lot to say about it in the locker room this afternoon."

She threw up her hands and exclaimed, "I knew all that! That's why I thought he didn't know because jealous Mac is never that nice. And I do mean never. Usually he threatens violence on anyone who so much as looks at me wrong and Timmy has done way more than look so—"

"Ack! That sentence has to stop right now because I'm getting mental images that I so don't need in my head right now."

The tortured look on Buzzy's face was enough to send Cecelia into laughter again before she forcibly pressed her lips into a straight line and tried to maintain a serious expression until he nodded for her to continue after mentally erasing every last image that had been thought in the past few minutes.

"I just thought I was doing the right thing."

Buzz's face softened at the sad tone that had once again entered her voice, "I know you did and I'm sure he knows that too."

"Then why did he get so mad?"

"Just because he knows that there have been guys before him doesn't mean he has to like it. Give him a break CeCe."

Cecelia crossed the room to wrap her arms around the one person who without fail could calm her down in any situation and make her see things in a different light, "Thanks for everything."

"No problem buddy."

"I mean it," she whispered as her chin rested comfortably on his shoulder as they hugged, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Anyone would do it."

"No they wouldn't," she disagreed in a fierce tone as she leaned back to look him in the eye, "I love you, you know."

"I know."

"Good."

As she leaned back her eyes were looking suspiciously bright with moisture, but not a single tear drop fell from beneath her lids to which Buzz was eternally grateful since he was feeling ill-prepared to deal with a crying female regardless of whether or not she was one of his best friends.

As CeCe turned to walk out the door Buzz felt his hand reach up to grab her arm, "Hey."

She half-turned to face him with a question in her eyes.

"I love you too."

If possible her eyes filled up even more, but she held her composure as she whispered, "I know that."

Of course their shared heartfelt moment was ruined as Cecelia pulled back her arm and socked him in the shoulder for all she was worth.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Because I've cried more in the past few months than I have in my entire life and you just made me start up again."

"That's a really crappy reason to beat up your best friend."

"Well it made me feel better."

Buzzy had to laugh at her twisted logic, but he to admit that this side of Cecelia was one he was much better acquainted with. If punching something made her smile than Buzz was willing to offer his services, well make that someone else's services because his arm really didn't need that many bruises, as a punching bag any time she needed it.

VV

Cecelia didn't look up as the dark haired boy who'd been occupying her thoughts settled his body down on the cement curb beside her instead choosing simply to reach out and catch his warm fingers between hers. His thumb instinctively stroked across her knuckles and a single tear slid down her cheek at the gesture.

"I'm sorry."

Neither turned to look at each other even after the silence was broken, Mac kept his gaze on the street in front of him as he replied, "Me too."

"Timmy is just a friend. A good friend, but still just a friend."

His head turned slightly to focus on the skin of her knee that was peeping through the ragged hole in her jeans, "I know. It's just hard."

"What's hard?"

"I don't know if I can explain it."

Her hand squeezed his tightly as she struggled not to push him for explanations that he wasn't ready to give, "Try me."

His deep voice mumbled an answer that Cecelia try as she might was unable to decipher, "What?"

"He had you first. There will always be that part of you that belongs to him and no one else. I hate that."

CeCe sucked in a breath at his soft spoken reply unsure of how to answer without making it worse. Carefully and slowly she sifted through all of the thoughts running through her head and put voice to the few she thought might prove helpful. "He may have dated me and he may have done, well, more with me, but he never had me the way you do."

His grip on her hand had gone slack before her little speech, but afterwards it tightened unconsciously in a possessive response. Using her free hand CeCe reached up and laid it on Mac's cheek slowly turning his face towards her wanting his eyes to meet hers before she said this next thing. "I was never his because I've always been yours and nothing will change that."

Both were silent as they held each other's gaze until finally Mac broke the silence to whisper, "Me too. About the other girls I mean, they didn't mean anything. You're mine and I'm yours."

The last phrase was spoken with such a strong intensity that Cecelia felt another tear slip silently down the curve of her cheek.

Her teary sniffles continued even as the edges of her lips twitched up into a half smile, "We need therapy. I've never met another couple that had as many issues as we do."

His surprised chuckle cut through any of the remaining tension and CeCe relaxed all the way sinking into his side and plucked the stocking cap off his head before unceremoniously plopping it onto her own.

"Did we fight this much before?"

Mac didn't hesitate, "Yes."

"Ok."

"At least it didn't take us weeks to make up this time. That's a plus. Maybe we're getting better at this."

"Better at fighting?" she questioned as one eyebrow quirked up at the oddness of the idea, "I'm not sure that's a skill I want us to develop."

"Better at realizing when we're both wrong?" he offered instead, "Is that better?"

She pressed further into the warmth of his side seeking relief from the crisp chill in the late fall weather, "I'll take that."

"If you want to we can talk about Tim and that other stuff," Robbie finally said after a minute or two of companionable silence.

"Do you want to?" CeCe asked as she tucked her chin down and rested her head on the hard muscles of his chest.

"Not particularly."

"Then we won't, but he's my friend you know. That isn't going to change."

Cecelia felt her skin rise up into little goose bumps as Mac, instead of answering, trailed his fingers all the way up her spine before wrapping one silky brunette lock of hair around his finger and smiled at her.

"Don't try to distract me," she warned him leaning back just enough to shake a finger at him, "Don't think that every time you decide not to talk about something you can just go and turn me into a pile of mush so I forget everything."

"I turn you into a pile of mush?" he questioned as a delighted grin inched across his face.

She couldn't help grinning back at him, "Yes, but that's not the point."

He brushed the smallest of lingering kisses on her mouth before leaning back, "And what was the point again?"

A light blush stained her cheeks as she felt her head tilting up towards his again regardless of the serious conversation she'd previously been trying to have. "Now see this is exactly what I'm talking about," she complained as he smirked down at her, "Stop seducing me for two seconds and let me talk. After that you can do all the seducing you want."

"And will you be a willing participant?" he asked casually running his hand down her arm to catch her wrist in his grasp and stroking the soft inner skin of her arm.

"Of course," Cecelia shifted up to drop a quick kiss on his cheek before settling back onto the ground beside him, "Ok let's talk."

"Talk away."

"Timmy's my friend"

"So I've heard," Mac cut in his tone teasing.

"Don't be a punk Robbie," Cecelia tried to channel their third grade teacher and look serious but had a feeling she failed miserably, "I just want you to understand that he's my friend and that isn't going to go away anytime soon which means you're going to have to see us together especially now."

"Why especially now?"

"Well he's on the team for one and you guys are treating him like a leper. Someone has to talk to him and if it's not going to be the team then it'll have to be me. It's not his fault that my dad wants him on the team, at least for now."

"I know that."

"And you're ok with me hanging out with him? I'm not trying to be difficult Mac, I'm really not, but I'd feel awful if I ignored one of my friends when they needed me to be there."

"It's fine CeCe. I don't necessarily like it, but I can deal with it. Hell, I'll even be pleasant to him, maybe even tell some of the other guys to knock off the silent treatment."

Cecelia arched one of her annoyingly flexible eyebrows at him looking skeptical, "You're going to play nice?"

"I'm always nice."

"Debatable," she muttered under her breath still unsure of what to make of Mac's easy acquiescing, "Why are you going out of your way to be nice to him if you don't even like him?"

"I don't not like him," Mac clarified knowing that it was the truth regardless of the fact that he did have the smallest inclination to smash his fist into Timmy's face anytime he so much as looked in Cecelia's direction, "He's a good guy and a great hockey player, but no you're right, I don't necessarily want to be his new best friend either."

"Then why are you going to help him?"

"I may not like him, but I do like you."

Whatever else he might have been about to say was cut off as Cecelia flung her arms around him with enough force that she knocked them both backwards onto the hard cement with her much smaller body sprawled across his before her cold lips descended upon his.

"Remind me to say the things you want to hear more often," Mac murmured wrapping an arm around her waist to hold her tight against him, "Because this is a pleasant turn of events."

"If you think sucking up to me is going to get you special favors then you are completely correct."

She felt him smile against her lips as they met hers again in a long, slow caress. The moment stretched longer as one of his hands slid under the bottom edge of her sweatshirt to rest on the warm bare skin beneath and his other was held fast by her own smaller hand.

It was only later as the sensation of chilled air crept up her back that CeCe realized they were laying in the middle of a sidewalk in plain view of anyone who passed by. Her cheeks warmed considerably at the realization and she sat up abruptly before Mac had time to protest lightly thumping him on the chest with the back of her hand, "Let's go inside, I'm cold."

"I'm not."

"We've been making out on a sidewalk," she hissed after it became clear that he had no intention of moving, "Aren't you even the least bit embarrassed?"

"Nope," he grinned up at her and winked, "I enjoyed it actually."

Her mouth twitched in amusement, "You're incorrigible."

"But adorable."

"Completely," she agreed with an exaggerated roll of her eyes before she held her hands out to him "Come on big guy, time to go inside."

Mac looked up to where Cecelia was looming over him with that damn smile that was capable of making him do whatever she wanted and groaned. She was going to kill him. She really was.


	18. Did he just pet me?

Mac was still laughing as he pushed open the locker room door and headed out into the hallway followed closely by the object of his amusement. Jack O'Callahan trailed after him still looking pissed at finding his clothes replaced with articles from CeCe's wardrobe. Not a single hockey player had stepped forward to take the blame for this latest prank, but Silky and Rammer had looked mighty pleased with themselves as O.C. had wrestled on the sweatpants and pink t-shirt. Not only were the sweatpants too small in the waist but they were also too short ending mid calf and the t-shirt was stretched tight across his chest and ended at least two inches above the waist of the sweatpants.

Watching O.C. try to walk down the hallway in his usual long-legged strides only to discover that his steps were severely hindered by the confinement of CeCe's too small sweatpants on his much bigger frame sent Mac into another gale of laughter that even the force of O.C.'s glare couldn't quell.

O.C. swung around and attempted to raise a fist in threat but only succeeded in splitting a seam across his shoulder.

"I am going to kill whoever did this," he growled looking down at where his bare shoulder now peeked out of the t-shirt.

"Maybe you should thank them instead," Mac suggested trying his hardest to maintain a straight face, "Because pink is definitely your color. I'd wear it more often if I were you."

"If you don't shut up, you're going to be wearing my fist in your face."

The threat did little to dampen Mac's amusement although the chuckle that sounded from behind him did.

Tim Harrer stepped through a doorway and joined the two boys in the hallway, "I have to agree with Mac, pink really is a great color on you. Brings out your eyes."

O.C.'s face darkened even more. Teasing from his team members was one thing, but he wasn't about to let some punk say the same thing especially when the punk in question was out to steal a spot from one of his friends.

He took a step towards him with slightly murderous intent on his mind only to be intercepted by Mac who hastened to step between the two and laid a hand on O.C.'s chest.

"You should go change before CeCe sees that you split open her favorite t-shirt."

"I will just as soon as I—"

"Maybe you should go now," Mac said quietly wedging further between the other two boys looking determined to prevent the inevitable fight.

O.C. pointed a threatening finger at Timmy as he walked backwards down the hall not taking his eyes off of him, "I'll see you later."

Mac stifled a laugh at O.C.'s blatant attempt of intimidation. "CeCe would have his head if she'd seen that little display."

Tim grinned at the mental picture, "She doesn't take well to threats unless she's the one doing the threatening."

Both boys found themselves chuckling over the truth of the statement before Mac's smile faded as he surveyed the blonde man standing across from him realizing for the first time exactly who he was laughing with.

"You looked good on the ice today," Mac finally said trying to ignore the awkwardness of the moment.

Tim nodded in acknowledgment of the compliment, "You too."

Both boys shifted back on their heels as silence filled the air between them. Mac shifted forward to say something else when Tim cut him off, "We don't have to do this you know."

"Do what?"

"Do this," Timmy gestured between the two of them, "You don't have to act like I don't bother you and you don't have to play nice when CeCe isn't around."

"I am nice," the dark haired boy protested, "I'm going to get a complex if people keep insisting I'm only nice because someone tells me to be."

"You're a nice guy Mac, but let's face it, you and I both know that my history with Cecelia bugs you and that's ok. I know exactly how you feel."

Mac laughed a little at that, feeling sure that Tim had no idea how he felt, "Oh yeah?"

"I dated CeCe too you know."

"But you weren't playing hockey on the same team as her ex-boyfriend."

"No I had to play on the same team as her soul mate." Timmy drawled out the last two words with a sardonic twist, "Somehow I think that's worse."

"Maybe I'm just being slow today, but what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you."

"I figured that much out, but why?"

"Don't act like you don't know." The potentially harsh words were softened by the wry grin on Tim's face and his apparent acceptance of that particular fact of life. "You were always more important to Cecelia than I was. Every moment of every day you were there, right between us."

"I'm really starting to miss the times when CeCe and I were just friends," Mac noted with a small grimace, "At least things were simpler then."

"You didn't want to rip the head off of every guy who so much as looked at her back then?"

Mac's face relaxed into an amused expression, "Actually that seems to be an ever present desire. It was just easier to think that I wanted to rip their heads off for looking at my friend instead of at my girlfriend. Look Tim, It's not that I don't like you it's just—"

"Complicated," the other boy finished, "Like I said before, I get it. I'll admit that one of the reasons I accepted Herb's offer to start playing with you guys so late was because a part of me was kind of hoping that CeCe had gotten you out of her head once and for all, but obviously that hasn't happened."

"No it hasn't."

Tim smiled at the momentary flash of anger that crossed Mac's face glad on some level that Cecelia had someone like him in her life, "Not that I have any intention of pursuing her now that she's with you. Maybe I would have if you two were still playing at being just friends, but now? Not a chance."

Mac just stared as Timmy turned and started walking back down the hallway before quickly turning to toss out one last comment, "And for the record, you two were never just friends."

"Tim-"

The blonde boy waved his hand in a signal not to finish whatever else had been about to be said. "See you at practice tomorrow Robbie."

He continued staring as Tim turned a corner and disappeared from view before feeling a slender pair of arms slip around his waist from the back. He lifted his right arm and allowed Cecelia to slip forward until his arm rested on her back both of her arms still wrapped loosely around him.

"What was that all about?"

"Nothing really," Mac said after a minute unsure of how he could possibly describe their encounter so it made sense to anyone else, "We were just talking."

She raised an eyebrow and looked up at him suspiciously, "Were you being nice?"

"How many times have we been over this?" He blew out a breath in exasperation, "I'm always nice regardless of race, religion, hair color, height, or status as your ex-boyfriend."

Her look of disbelief irritated him just enough so that he felt compelled to point out, "Your face is going to freeze like that if you keep doing that eyebrow thing."

"What eyebrow thing?"

Mac attempted to arch his brow in the annoyingly flexible way that Cecelia always did.

"I do not do that," Cecelia argued looking annoyed that he'd even suggest such a thing.

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

At Robbie's continued arguing CeCe once again unconsciously arched an eyebrow at him and attempted to stare him into submission. Unfortunately Mac seemed to have grown immune to her death stare since his amusement only seemed to heighten the longer she glared at him.

He just laughed as her annoyance with him moved up another notch causing color to bloom in her cheeks and her eyes to flash. "You're just too cute sometimes." With that he reached up and ruffled her hair a little before sauntering down the hallway towards his room.

Cecelia's eyebrow finally settled back down into a normal position before narrowing into a V as she gaped down the corridor after him in confusion, "Did he just pet me?"

Her bewildered query was unceremoniously answered by Dave Silk as he came up behind her in the hallway, "That's what it looked like to me."

"Me too," she said still looking adorably befuddled by Mac's obvious upper hand in their latest encounter.

He laughed at her agape expression before wrapping an arm around her waist and steering her back the way he'd come, "I'm supposed to tell you that Jimmy wants to see you for a minute."

"About what?"

"I don't know. I was just walking past his doorway when a shoe flew out and smacked me in the forehead. I think his exact words were, 'Go get Cecelia before I throw the other one,' and since my forehead doesn't need a second imprint of a sneaker on it here I am."

CeCe leaned forward to examine his forehead and sure enough right by the hairline there was still a faint red imprint of the bottom of a sneaker. "Wow. I thought you were kidding."

He grimaced as a hand unconsciously rubbed at it, "I wish I was. Jimmy should've been a baseball player; he's got quite an arm."

"Poor baby."

"At least someone feels my pain."

Oh honey," Cecelia pouted out her lower lip and leaned forward to lightly smooth the indentation on his forehead, "I just feel so awful for you."

His face fell into a mock frown as he whined, "Could you pretend a little harder to actually feel bad for me because I'm not feeling the love right now."

"Poor baby."

"Ok that's it, no more sympathy from you missy."

"Are you sure? Because I could say poor baby about fifty more times before I get sick of it."

"God save us all," he muttered under his breath before ushering her toward Jimmy's room, "Come on Princess."

She groaned at the reemergence of her least favorite nickname, but followed obediently behind.

VV

"She called to talk to you and yet somehow she spends an hour on the phone with Cecelia?"

Jimmy just shrugged and continued tossing the tennis ball up in the air and catching it while lying flat on his back listening to the excited sounds of girl chatter coming from behind the door, "You get used to it."

"How does it feel to have your girlfriend stolen by another girl?" Silky cracked with another annoyingly idiotic grin.

"Mandy seems to think that CeCe needs some girl talk to balance out all the time she spends with us guys. I think her exact words were 'Jimmy, her best friend is a boy! Don't you think she deserves to talk to someone who doesn't have a penis?'"

"You snagged yourself a good girl Jimmy."

Jim allowed his head to flop to the left so he could look directly at Silky for the first time since he'd had him deliver Cecelia to his room on direct orders from Mandy who wanted to have yet another chance to talk about whatever it was girls talked about. He grinned right at Silky and tossed him the tennis ball, "I know."

"Although you're sickeningly attached to her. If I have to spend the entire time in Lake Placid watching the two of you stare longingly into each other's eyes and arguing about who loves who more I will throw up."

"I don't stare longingly into her eyes."

Silky snorted as Jimmy's denial once again reared its ugly head, "Oh please, it's pathetic to watch the two of you together."

The darker haired boy shrugged again before turning his attention back to the tautly stretched phone cord. He reached over to give it a tug and CeCe peeked her head out from inside the bathroom where she'd sat herself on top of the counter to talk with Mandy, "Yeah?"

"Are you almost done?"

Her head cocked to the side as she regarded him steadily, "Maybe. Why?"

"Because I'd like to talk to my girlfriend again sometime before the Olympics, thanks."

"The men are getting restless," Cecelia narrated into the phone looking annoyed by the distraction. She listened intently to Mandy's reply before smiling widely at her words, "Just your boyfriend, Silky seems content to hang out."

A few seconds later she stifled a giggle and rolled her eyes, "I know."

"I get the feeling you've just been insulted my friend."

Jimmy tugged the cord again, "CeCe give me the phone."

Her nose wrinkled as a frown passed over her features, "We're not done."

"Cecelia. Phone. Now"

At his look she said a hasty goodbye to Mandy before meekly handing over the phone. "You would've gotten it eventually," she muttered under her breath as she passed him to head out the door. The last bit had Silky smiling, but it was the irritated, "Men!" she spit out afterwards that caused him to sputter silently in laughter.


	19. Expected Goodbye

"So how long do you think I'm going to be here for?"

CeCe's eyes widened almost imperceptibly at Tim Harrer's question. "What do you mean?" she hedged not feeling comfortable with where their formerly innocent conversation was now headed.

"Your dad brought me here for a reason and I'm reasonably sure that it wasn't to permanently be a part of this team."

"What makes you-"

"Come on, your dad had his team picked before tryouts even started, didn't he?"

The telltale guilty flush spreading across her cheeks was answer enough.

"He had his team picked and I wasn't on it. You and I both know that your dad rarely changes his mind about that kind of thing. So what's up Cecelia?"

She shrugged and lifted her hands in confusion, "I honestly don't know. I had no idea he was bringing you back until you were already here and he hasn't said more than a word or two about it since."

"But?" he prompted accurately reading her expression and concluding that she was holding at least a small bit of information back.

Her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of red, "I think you're right. I get the feeling that he brought you in for a reason and once he gets whatever he wants you're probably going to be history."

"That's what I thought too," Tim replied not looking particularly concerned by the news, "Any idea of what he wants to happen?"

Her shoulders shrugged up again as she shook her head, "Not really. I'm assuming it has something to do with team building, but he hasn't said anything specific to me. Actually he's been annoyingly tight-lipped about the whole thing."

"Even if your dad wanted me to stay, I don't think I would."

"Why not?"

"A lot of reasons, but mostly because coming in so late sets me up to be the outcast for the rest of training. None of the guys are going to accept me into their group if it means sacrificing one of their own."

"They'd get over it," Cecelia protested half-heartedly feeling the need to reassure him even though the words rang hollow and both of them knew it.

His eyes locked with hers for a long moment before his gaze slowly slid away from hers to examine something just beyond her right shoulder, "That's not the only reason."

Without thinking she pressed him to explain, "What else is stopping you."

His mouth twisted up into the barest hint of a smile, but his eyes held little amusement, "You."

"Me?" she squeaked out wishing too late that she'd just kept her big mouth shut.

"As happy as I am that you finally got what you wanted a part of me wishes you hadn't. I just think it'll be easier for everyone if I'm not here for the duration. "

CeCe reached out with both hands and caught his clutching them both as she bounced up to her tiptoes on impulse and softly kissed him on the cheek before settling back down on her bare feet. "No matter what, I'm glad you were here even if it was only for a little while."

A door behind them pushed open as Mac sauntered through the entry and stopped dead at the sight of them standing in the middle of the room holding hands. Cecelia fought the urge to drop Tim's hands at her boyfriend's appearance choosing to steadfastly continue holding them even as she smiled at Mac from across the room in order to reassure him that this particular encounter was completely innocent.

He watched them with unreadable eyes for a moment before his mouth pressed up into the smallest of grins and he nodded once in apparent acceptance of the scene before him.

When she turned back to Tim, he just nudged her arm, "Go."

Tim grinned at her as she walked backwards away from him with a smile that actually reached his eyes. CeCe felt herself walk the short distance separating her from Mac and upon reaching him entwined their fingers together feeling momentarily dazzled by the bright smile he flashed at her before lightly brushing a kiss across her temple.

"Herb wants to see you."

Cecelia glanced up at Mac surprised by his words and attempted to read his expression before turning around to face Tim, a tiny frown crossing her delicate features. Tim just shrugged and began moving towards the door, "I guess my time is up, huh?"

Her hand reached out to catch his sleeve as he passed, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's for the best."

Mac didn't say anything until they were left completely alone in the room, "He took that rather well."

"He was expecting it eventually."

"You're taking it better than expected too," he observed watching her warily through suspicious eyes.

Her sigh sounded like it came from somewhere deep inside and forced its way out of her involuntarily. "I was expecting it too although I wish my dad had talked about all of this with me. I would've liked to have been more prepared."

"I'm sorry babe."

"You didn't do anything," she murmured after a minute letting her head drop to rest on his chest. The steady beat of his heart beneath her ear went a long way to easing the small stab of guilty pain that had flooded her chest at the realization that her dad intended to send Tim home right here and now with no warning. She hadn't been a part of the decisions to bring him here or to send him home but a part of her still felt responsible and that part was feeling particularly awful right about now.

It was Mac's guilty cough that made CeCe glance up with narrowed eyes and take in the flush that was even now heating his cheeks. He coughed once more before tentatively saying, "Well I might have had a little to do with your dad sending Harrer home."

For once she held her temper and let him continue, "Rizzo, O.C., Mark, and I talked to your dad last night about the situation and I guess he decided we were right because he told us right then that he would send Tim home if that's what we wanted."

"What exactly did you say to him?" Cecelia pressed still looking remarkably calm considering the fact that Mac had just told her he'd been partially responsible for getting her ex-boyfriend and more recently the object of her rather incredible protective instincts booted off an Olympic hockey team.

"We're a family, you know?"

Her silent nod encouraged him to keep talking, "That's what we told him. We told him that we're a family and that we want our family to go to Lake Placid together. Harrer is a great hockey player but he isn't part of our family. No matter how amazing he is on the ice, it doesn't make up for the fact that he wasn't here at the beginning. He missed out on all the stuff that made us who we are together. We need to keep it that way if we're going to even have a chance to medal."

She nodded once more and stared up at him with serious eyes. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," CeCe reaffirmed giving his fingers a comforting squeeze.

"We're good?"

If she had been feeling the slightest bit angry his concerned eyes would have melted her icy resolve in an instant. Cecelia pressed a kiss to his lips and leaned back with a grin, "We're great."

His lips twitched up in response to her teasing grin and he didn't let her get too far away before pulling her closer again, his palms placed firmly on her lower back making it impossible for her to squirm away from him unless he chose to let go. Mac noticed the flash of fight that passed through her eyes at his possessive hold, but luckily for them both she'd gotten much better at resisting the urge to fight against things just on principle. Her body relaxed against his, pressing their bodies together from chest to thigh which went a long way to furthering his amorous intentions.

"Well this is an interesting arrangement," he murmured tugging her even closer not content until he could feel every curve of her body nestled against his much harder one.

CeCe giggled a bit as she rested her head in the curve of his shoulder, "It definitely shows promise."

He looked at her for a moment before quirking his eyebrow at her. Another small burst of laughter escaped her before she brushed his lips with a fleeting caress. "Wanna make out?"

"You are _such_ a hussy."

The faux-scandalized tone of his voice caused amusement to well up again in her chest but her giggle was cut prematurely short by his mouth swooping down to cover hers. She pulled back long enough to say, "I guess I'll take that as a yes."

"Definitely a yes," Mac assured her.

Later that night Mac was still having problems keeping his hands to himself where CeCe was concerned. They were sitting on the floor beside Buzzy's bed watching TV with most of the team sprawled out around them either on the beds, the floor, or draped across the only three chairs in the small room. His hands reached out on their own accord to run lightly up and down her spine or to twist into the silky strands of her dark hair. She didn't seem to mind overly much judging by the way her spine arched to meet his touch with every pass of his fingers and the relaxed sigh that escaped as he stroked her hair.

"You guys make me want to vomit," Silky pronounced as he eyed their public display of affection with mild disgust.

O.C. nodded his head in agreement, "All the touchy-touchy crap has got to stop. After a few hours of hanging out with you guys I suddenly want to go out and find the nearest nice girl to chain myself to so we can have 2.5 kids and live happily ever after. It makes me want to shoot myself."

"Charm like that is why you're going to make some lucky woman very happy one day," Cecelia shot back hiding her grin by taking a quick sip of her drink.

"Plus dude, you're so whipped it's not even funny anymore."

Buzzy chuckled at the indignant look that crossed Mac's face, "I hate to say it but the being whipped thing isn't so new. The boy has been whipped since day one. CeCe tends to have that effect on men."

"I like my men docile and easy to manage."

"Well congratulations," Silky said looking ashamed on behalf of all men everywhere, "You got one."

CeCe brushed a kiss along Mac's jaw as he laughed along with the rest of the guys as they ragged on him about his recent behavior. "I don't know about all of you, but I am in desperate need of some chocolate." She stood up and held her hand out. "Come on Silky, I'll let you walk me to the store and buy me some candy."

"When you put it like that, how can I resist?" Silky lazily smiled up at her from his spot on the floor.

"You can't."

He held his arm out and allowed her to help pull him up, "I have no idea why any of us do this stuff for you. I really don't."

She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and half-dragged him toward the door, "Let's face it, you love me."

They bickered companionably for the rest of their walk out of the building until CeCe sighed and looked up at the sky as they walked out the door into the darkening twilight where a few stray snowflakes were gracefully drifting around them. "This is nice, isn't it? I'm glad you came with me."

"I didn't have much choice," he grumbled good-naturedly his words merely making her smile wider.

"Thank you." She let her head rest on the side of his shoulder as they walked. A small house lit up with Christmas lights caught her attention a moment later and she pulled him sideways so he could admire the pretty lights twinkling around the windows and eaves of the house. "Can you believe it's almost Christmas? This year has gone by really fast."

He tugged on her arm gently until she resumed walking beside him, "Have you started shopping for presents yet?"

The gaze she shot him was pure disbelief, "Of course! I've been shopping since July."

"I'm more of a week before Christmas kind of guy."

She shuddered at the thought of being so ill-prepared for her favorite holiday, but let the subject drop because the shrug of his shoulders left little doubt that her opinions weren't going to change his lifelong habits.

"I've been wondering about something lately."

"Yeah? What?"

"I was wondering why you aren't dating anyone. You're cute and you're really smart underneath that vapid demeanor, so why isn't there some lady getting free use of that body?"

His ears pinked at the tops over her 'use of his body' comment and he struggled not to let his shock show on his face, "Maybe it's because I don't actually live here and consequently don't know any girls but you. Plus any free time I get from hockey I use to catch up on my sleep and not as happy hour to pick up chicks."

"Oh, come on. It can't be all that hard for you to find a date."

"It's not," he agreed, "But it's easier for me to focus on the things I'm supposed to be focusing on if I'm not trying to juggle six girls at once."

"Instead of juggling six girls, you could maybe try hanging out with just one. That has to be easier, right?"

"I suppose, but honestly I prefer to have the six girls. If you're going to do something, you should do it right."

Cecelia just giggled, "That reminds me of something Mac would say. He was always a big believer in the six girls at once theory. He never had less than four girls drooling over him at a time, it was actually kind of pathetic."

"And look at him now," Silky said, "He can't even keep his act together with just one girl."

"That's because I'm different." Her answer was matter of fact, "If I thought I was just like all of the others I wouldn't be doing this."

"The bigger question is what took you guys so long to get it together."

She thought it over for a minute and then shrugged her narrow shoulders, "We needed to grow up first. This wouldn't have worked before. He was too immature and I was too scared to ever really take a chance on it working out."

"So is it weird dating someone you've known your entire life?"

His question stopped her in her tracks for a moment before she resumed movement, "It's not exactly weird, but it's hard sometimes."

"Oh yeah?"

"He's my best friend and that's great most of the time, but sometimes I want to talk to my best friend about my boyfriend and I can't because they're the same person. Suddenly the person who I've always counted on to keep me sane can't give me advice on the one subject I truly need it for."

Silky nodded once in understanding so she continued, "I have Buzzy and you guys and now I even have Mandy, but sometimes the only person I want to talk about Mac with is Mac. That's what dating Robbie is like."

His nose crinkled up in a frown as he thought about her explanation. "You two are way too complex for me."

Her toe kicked at a pebble as they walked along the snowy sidewalk, "Sometimes it's a little too complex for me too."

"Whoa," Silky exclaimed holding up a hand to silence her, "That sounded suspiciously like break-up talk. Please tell me you're not planning on breaking up with Mac. Come on CeCe, why don't you just kick us all in the balls right now if that's what you're planning to do?"

Her lips twitched at his outburst, "I'm not going to break up with Robbie. I was just agreeing with you that sometimes it's harder than I expected."

"Thank God," he muttered under his breath.

She smiled at Silky's fervent relief. " Everything just seems to be moving so fast. It feels like we've been together like this forever and then other times everything feels brand new. We went from zero to sixty in no time flat so sometimes I feel like I need some more time to figure things out.

"Ah, a wise woman."

His teasing words lightened the mood between them and once again they found themselves bickering their way down the sidewalk beneath the lightly falling snow.


End file.
